Look on the Bright Side
by LusciousNesha
Summary: A series of drabbles to accompany the AU Glee fic: As Far As Eye Can See... A former Neo Nazi Sam receives help from a blind Mercedes Jones to reintegrate into society, and falls in love. These drabbles have no particular order, and will feature any of the characters in the story. I am currently interested in accepting requests for drabbles within the confines of the story.
1. Angel Eyes

**Look on the Bright Side: A Series of Drabbles to Accompany As Far As Eye Can See**

_A/N: So, there are bits and pieces of stuff that I either left out of the story when writing it, or I couldn't squeeze in for reasons. So, I decided to try to post them here, and I fear that they may not be in any particular order, but I'll try to post at the top when the drabble occurred (within the time frame of the story, or flashback, etc. This first one is one of the initial thoughts that Sam would've had about Mercedes, that I didn't want to squeeze in at the time, because of the tone I was trying to set with building them up in a believable way, considering their circumstances. _

_If my AFAECS readers have anything that you would like to see drabbled or further explained, y'all already know that I keeps my PM box open and if I can do it, you'll see it here. Thanks ladies/friends!_**  
**

**1. Angel Eyes**

Her hands were the first human hands to gently touch him in seven years, with the exception of the hug that he shared with his lawyer when he was granted parole. The past few years, he had not had human contact, at all. Before that, his contact had been brutal and harsh. Even before that, he had been with girls and been touched, but it was always dirty and sexual. Now, even though the luscious little woman in front of him only meant to try to gain an idea of who he was, he had to push the thoughts creeping into his mind out.

It didn't take long. When she touched the tattoo on his neck and questioned him about the embarrassing artwork, he became instantly deflated. Yet, she still seemed to welcome him and she wanted to help him. Sam couldn't help but to look directly at her as they walked down the street together to find some place to eat. She was easy on the eyes, but after being away from women (save a few female corrections officers and the lawyer – all of which became the tastiest looking dishes, any time he saw them) for seven years; virtually all women were attractive.

But, there was something else about her. There was something extra special about this woman, this angel that God had placed in his path. On a typical day, he might have passed her by on the streets, unnoticed. He probably would have noticed her well-kept and high class looking dogs before actually seeing her. But, with the love that she seemed to have on her heart, to want to help him, even without a hiccup. She truly was a blessing and that fact alone made her a sight to behold.


	2. Believe Half of What You Hear and None

_This occurs during The Rite; the chapter in which Sam meets the guys and Puck…_

**2. Believe None of What You Hear and Half of What You See**

_(Earlier in the day, before the visit to the community center)_

Quinn Fabray… was she worth the trouble? Once upon a time, a gorgeous girl with pretty eyes would have been worth any hell to pay in order for a little closeness… but that did not seem to be the case, here. Quinn was one of the loveliest things he had ever seen and he could stand for the challenge of going after her and making her eat that pride that she was hitting his ego with, but he was distracted. Why couldn't Quinn be more like Mercedes? She would be perfect!

Sam watched Mercedes, reading, as he took boxes from the dolly and set them down in the stock room. He had to clear the delivery bay so that they could make a charity run. This entire method made him absolutely INSANE! Why would anyone set their building up like this? He had to meet the delivery guy outside, receive the delivery and move it down and up a ramp to a basement, then come up to the main floor to the stock room! "Is there a reason that we can't have the delivery guy drop things off in the front of the building and just bring it to the stock room?" Sam asked Quinn.

"If you have a problem with the way that things are done, I'm sure there is a perfect job out there somewhere for you, Mr. Evans." Quinn barely batted an eye as she replied and kept her stride as she strutted right past him. Sam frowned and shook his head. Why the hell was he always asking her stuff? Mercedes never would answer anybody like that. God, Quinn was so _rude. _It almost made her look less pretty. Almost… he looked at her and remembered why (besides the fact that she was the store manager) he kept coming to her for information.

Mercedes heard his question (and Quinn's reply) and answered, "Since I actually live in this building, to make the delivery personnel operate outside and only know of the underground stock area, it minimizes threats to the inside of the shop and my home." She wasn't facing him, but she had lifted her head to answer and he caught this incredible profile glance of her. He hadn't noticed how full her lips were before then. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm blind and I live alone."

"I live here," Sam said.

"It's not like I'm gonna keep you forever," she replied and laughed. Then, she began to graze her fingers across her book again. Sam sighed. She had a point. This was simply a gateway to something better and who was he to complain when she was already doing so much for him?

Sam followed Miss Jones to the area of the basement where she kept the charity deliveries and passed him a set of keys. "The van should be in that direction, closer to where you accepted the delivery. You can drive it as far as the pole, right over and past the dip, and we can load it up there." Sam walked to the van, which was a blend of marbled purples and he shook his head. The other van that usually was in the front of the building, or parked in the back was not as showy, but it too was purple. He pulled the van up to where she told him and they began loading. It was tiring, but kind of refreshing to spend time around just her, by herself. He'd always forget what people thought of him, because she never brought it up or showed in her actions that it even mattered.

He tried to get some information about Miss Fabray out of her, but Miss Jones was not going to abide with that. He was curious to meet the father of her child, though. Mercedes had an interesting reaction to him asking questions about the guy…

_(At the community center)_

Upon meeting him, Sam saw nothing special, but then again that Star of David was kind of distracting him. He did notice a couple of things – though. Firstly, Puck summoned Mercedes into his office and tasked Joe with basically babysitting Sam… and Sam did not really approve. But, he peacefully followed Joe around the gym, pretending he cared about the different awards and such that Joe was trying to show him. Puck and Mercedes appeared to be fussing, but shortly afterwards, they stood really close and he kissed her on the face. "Heh," Sam muttered, amused.

Joe looked towards the office and quickly suggested that they finish the rest of the tour and meet Artie. _So… there was something between Mercedes and Quinn's daughter's father?_ He didn't want to jump to conclusions. Mercedes was an open enough human where he honestly believed that if there was something with them, she would have said so when he was questioning about him, or not… She might be a private person about personal matters. He really didn't know a thing about her, personally; aside from the fact that she was blind. Wow. He only just noticed that he'd asked her a series of questions about Fabray and not one about herself. Maybe some time, later. It wasn't like he wasn't interested in knowing more about the woman with the heart of gold. Things were simply just moving too quickly and he was having a hard time concentrating on any one thing. There was too much to learn about dealing with regular people, again.

He was still so tense and untrusting. He thought that he could trust Mercedes to a certain degree, but then again – she was going to be supporting him financially, until he could do so, himself. He sort of _had _to just trust that she wasn't in some way setting him up for some grand failure. He didn't have to do that with anyone else and while it would probably be a good time to have fun with these guys; he really wasn't in the spirit of trusting any of them either.

_(After guys' night out, outside of the community center)_

There was something stirred in him when Mercedes made the comment about him smelling like another woman. She seemed so amused and not the least bit affected by it… but why would she be? This woman had money and friends. She couldn't see herself, but he was sure that she got enough attention that she realized that she was a stunning looking woman. He was unsure as to why there was no man sniffing around her; but then Artie made a declaration about her purity. Sam wasn't floored, but it was unbelievable that she would still be a virgin. He was unsure of how old she was, but weren't black girls historically promiscuous? Maybe it was because she was blind, guys didn't really go for it… but no, Artie just made a list of guys who'd tried… _Puck _among them. Where Sam was from, a good girl was a special find and he found himself extremely curious…

THEN, he noticed her and Puck talking. They were standing close to each other. Intimately close were they standing to each other. No man sniffing around her? Sam miscalculated. Standing a few feet away from him as Sue Sylvester tore him a new hole over the phone, was at least one prime example. He was unsure of why that bothered him a little bit, but when Mercedes and Puck brushed him off to ride together back to the shop, he felt a stinging pang. He frowned and headed for the shower room. Why the hell would that bother him when he recently had his first taste of sex with a female since high school? Plus, the fact that Puck seemed to be after Mercedes was a _good _thing for him. That freed up Fabray!


	3. Looks Can Be Deceiving

****_Alliecat3... I promise, I am working on your list. I have so many stories going on right now - but I have your great ideas already up and running, just need to perfect them and you'll see them, soon! Thanks!_

**3. Looks Can Be Deceiving**

Quinn mentioned the condoms. Tina mentioned the condoms. Sam really couldn't have been more embarrassed about the issue and DESPERATELY hoped that neither of them or anyone else would ask Mercedes anything about that particular event. It really was nothing special or extraordinary. In fact, he was delighted that Mercy had nothing else to compare him to, because she might have been sorely disappointed, if she had.

The first one was a simple enough mishap. After several minutes of struggling with the thing to get it open and on, Sam simply was not prepared for the sweet tightness that was his Mercy. Not to be rude, but with Sugar, he had a feeling that he was not even the first guy that night, much less, _ever. _Even if he had not been told about her lack of experience; it would have been virtually clear by the time he attempted to push himself inside of her. He could not EVER remember moving so slowly or carefully with a female's body. Yet, his slowness and gentleness did not help to remedy his throbbing. He thought that perhaps, since he was hardly moving, things would be fine until he could get her body used to his presence inside of it… that was a misconception.

About two minutes in, Sam was done. He groaned, shook, shivered, collapsed and apologized, through trembling breaths. "For what? What happened? Sam, are you alright?" She asked, sounding terribly worried. "Sam, answer me, please!"

"I'm good," he said, with a chuckle, afraid to move. He was still pretty sensitive.

"It seemed like you hurt yourself," Mercedes observed, still sounding worried. He kissed her, to convince her that he was fine. He was better than fine. He was extremely happy… aside from that whole 'minuteman' performance he had just put on. Sam allowed himself a bit of rest, for a moment.

"I have to start over," he told her and removed and tried to dispose of the condom. It took him a moment to find her wastebasket, with the blinds on. But, putting on the second condom had not been nearly as problematic as the first. He thought about going down on her… hell – maybe he should have began there. He really had not been doing much thinking from the moment she mentioned the word "sex." But, now… she probably had blood down there. He sighed and decided on simple friction.

That was easy enough. He simply had to rub himself against her, with a few body rolls and slick non penetrating thrusts. It was great. It worked him back up to where he needed to be to properly perform and it got her in the mood well, without hurting her. "Okay, Sam – I'm ready," she whined, growing tired of the sweet ache that her body had, waiting on him to reenter and slowly move, again. Sam felt her hands on him trying to guide him inside…

"Wait. I don't think that the condom is on," he said and reached down. "Yeah… It must have slipped off when I was grinding against you."

"Well, could you slip it back on?" She asked.

"I don't know where it is," he admitted, feeling around for the thing. Then, he found it, but he couldn't figure out how to get back into it. He sucked his teeth and said, "I have another. I'm sorry. Be patient with me, please. This has never meant so much to me before and I think I might be suffering from performance anxiety." As Sam opened his third condom, he confessed, "I've never done this with somebody that I love and I've never been anyone's first…"

"Don't worry, Sam. I love you, too. Are you ready for me, yet?" She asked, gently stroking her fingertips down his chest and abs. Sam answered her with a kiss as he slowly pushed himself inside. This time, he refused to let her down again; and he did not.


	4. Green Eyed Monster

_This takes place during the time frame of the chapter The Realization_

_Drabble Requested by Alliecat3: Sam and Lauren's friendship/_

_Combined with Sam's jealousy of Puck growing_

**Green Eyed Monster**

Mercedes had been in a different kind of mood – singing to herself with Miss Fabray throwing her knowing little smirks and Santana teasing her sporadically about finally getting her cherry popped. While it would have been totally rude for Sam to ask her what was going on, he didn't feel as guilty about lurking around, trying to hear the women's conversation. "Are you and Puck getting together later?" Quinn asked. Mercedes just smiled and Sam stared at her, as she walked off. Quinn laughed and whispered to Santana, "She's pretty much the way that she was when they first got together. It won't be long, now."

Santana commented, "And he's kinda earned her back. Cheating is awful and I don't approve, but he cheated once and he was drunk and depressed. I think it's good for things to finally be back on track with them, especially with him being better, now. I can hardly wait to see how he's going to do it this time."

"He better do it right," Quinn said.

Sam saw Mercedes heading for the door with the dogs and moved to catch up with her, "Miss Jones! I heard that you're hiring some more people in here. I'm wondering if that will decrease my hours," he said.

"It will give you a lighter workload. You won't have to make any of the runs that you've been making or do a lot of the things that you've had to do for me. You'll pretty much be working in the shop as muscle and maintenance. I hope that's alright for you," She said.

"So, I don't get to walk the dogs and take you to the community center and fun stuff. I just get to be here with Miss Fabray and Miss Santana and try to keep my sanity as they try to break my body and spirits," he muttered.

"If it's a problem, then – we'll have to discuss it later," Mercedes said, gently, but hurriedly.

"Sorry, no. It's no problem. I've not been able to look for jobs, so maybe this will help that along," he said.  
"We can talk about that later, too, Sam," she said, trying to get out of the door. Where in the world was she rushing off to? Sam watched her go outside and only a moment later, Puck's truck pulled up and he rushed out of the vehicle to help her inside of it. Sam had only just realized that she didn't have the dogs with her.

"Mr. Evans, if you have nothing to do, I'm sure that I can find something. You _are _still on the clock, are you not?" Quinn asked, with her arms folded.

"Sorry, Miss Fabray. I was asking Miss Jones about some work stuff," he said.

"You don't bother Miss Jones about work stuff. You talk to _me _about work stuff," she reminded him. "Mercedes has better things to do with her time than to see to your petty pleas." She tore off a sheet of paper and handed it to him, "Here, since you ran out of tasks." She walked off and Sam never wanted to punch a female in the back of the head before then.

Sam watched the woman enter the building who would be Mercedes' new assistant and he heard how nicely Quinn was speaking to her – like a totally different person. He had come to really hate that about her. One moment, she was completely sexing him with her eyes, then she was cutting him down with her tongue. But, with everyone else, she was as sweet as peach pie. The new woman, a plus size girl with glasses smiled at him and said, "Hi, I'm Lauren. You can call me Lauren or Zizes."

"I'm Sam," he said with a friendly smile and shook her hand.

"Pleased to meet you," she said and Quinn continued giving her the tour. "He's a hottie. Are you on that?" He heard Lauren ask Quinn.

Quinn scoffed and genuinely gagged at the thought. "I don't want any of him and neither do you. He's covered in hideous tattoos and he's lazy. He takes twenty breaks a day. I'm so glad that Mercy gets to have a real assistant, now, and I'm sure that you'll love the other new ladies that we have coming in, as well…"

Becky, the new cashier was nice, but she could be a smartass, like a lot of the time. Her down syndrome in no way, shape, or form affected her attitude. She, at times, kind of, intimidated Sam. "I love the sh*t out of that little piece of work, there," Lauren said about her. Sunshine, the new sales specialist on the second floor was really sweet, too… but Sam was _pretty sure _that she was absolutely terrified of him – but God only knew what Miss Fabray and Santana had to say to her about him.

It didn't take Sam long to miss Mercedes, when the other ladies came in, she no longer had to do work at her shop, and he no longer had the chance to be her professional handler. He had no idea how much he missed her until he saw her coming out of the shop and realized that he had an opportunity to actually talk to her. When he stopped her outside of the shop and she invited him to come along with her for lunch, that had been the best feeling he had in a LONG time.

Sam was sitting outside, sweating in the turtleneck, despite the cool weather, with a bag of cool ranch Doritos and a bottle of water. Mercedes had been gone with Puck all day, but that was her business. He frowned, thinking about it. Was she and Puck really going to be dating again? He felt a little bad for thinking about them, that way. Puck seemed like a pretty good guy and Mercedes, of course was wonderful and deserved the best. Plus, even though he must have messed up in the past, everyone deserved a second chance. Why did his second chance have to be with Mercedes, though?

"Evans, is this what you're going to do the entire lunch break?" Lauren asked as she came out of the building.

"I can't be inside by myself, or alone with Miss Jones – so this is pretty much what I do with my lunch breaks," he answered, more calmly than Lauren knew she would have been if she was treated that way.

"Well, come ride with me. I'm thinking of having Mexican, today. You like?" She offered.  
"I don't really have any money for lunch," he answered.

"I have some," she said. "I don't care to eat alone and this image of you locked out and bored is almost ruining my appetite." She reached out for him and helped him to stand. "I could use a margarita, too – but I guess that I'll wait until after my shift is over. You drink?"

"Sometimes, but I'm living at the community center. One of Miss Jones's friends is responsible for me getting in and out and I don't want to inconvenience him by making him wait all night. If I try to stay a night here, it's even worse. I can't get in after the shop's closed, because I can't be alone with Miss Jones. She has to be upstairs and locked away from me. So, after everyone's gone from the building, I have no way of getting inside."

Lauren shook her head and said, "Oh, well – maybe some time after you've got your own place, or something. After we eat, I have to go pick up Miss Jones from her friend Puckerman's apartment," Lauren said.

"Apartment," he repeated. So this had not been some type of community center business. He hadn't even picked her up in the center van, though. "Cool," Sam lied. Well, it was cool that he'd get to see Mercedes, but the Puck's apartment part…

Sam was very pleased that Lauren had asked Mercedes if there was something going on between her and that pretty Puckerman boy, because Mercedes answered, "He wants to start something up, but I don't think that Noah and I are meant to be together in that way." To Sam, that was a "no." Now, he was unsure of what he might do with that information, especially since with women, you could never tell if they actually meant what they were saying. Or if they were just saving face. He waited. He could observe them enough to know whether or not he wanted to work on Miss Jones' interest level.


	5. Whatcha See is What You Get

_This drabble takes place during the chapter The Residue_

_Drabble Requested by Alliecat3: Mercedes and Mary discuss Sam in the supermarket_

**Whatcha See Is What You Get**

"I think that it's great that you and Sam found each other. It makes sense, because both of you are a little broken. He has his history and you have your handicap," Mary started the conversation; immediately Mercedes was rubbed the wrong way. But, she was unsure about how mother-girlfriend interactions were supposed to go. She knew that society placed a very high regard on a mother's opinion of the offspring's significant other, but how much was she supposed to be willing to listen to before being able to silence the woman without bringing about shame on Sam and/or his disappointment? "I certainly hope that you know what you're doing with the aloof way that you handle him," Mary said.

"Aloof?" was all that Mercedes could say.

"Well, I thought that maybe you were doing it on purpose as some type of tactic to make him have to work harder to try to impress you," Mary suggested. "You seem to only spend a small fraction of the day even acknowledging that the two of you are together. You come across as really good friends who hang out, but aren't really feeling that deeply for each other."

Even though they weren't "together," Quinn frequently had to deal with Mrs. Puckerman, and the woman did everything in her power to try to make Quinn feel less than worthy of carrying a Puckerman in her womb. _"Like anyone would effing be proud to be impregnated by one of those Lima loser Puckermans!" Quinn complained, while she was still pregnant and hormonal. _Then. there was Tina and Mrs. Chang. The woman seemed to try to tolerate Tina, because she loved her son, but Tina knew that Mrs. Chang would have preferred a woman with an upstanding Asian bloodline and secure financial standing. Mercedes _expected _for Sam's parents to not only dislike her, but to dislike her for a number of reasons… _not _showing Sam enough love was not one of the possibilities that ever crossed her mind.

"Oh… that's a… I don't know much about human affection and Sam is not extremely big on being touched, himself... you know after prison?"

"Not only with touch and affection," Mary began, "But – you also spend a great amount of time on the phone with your friends…"

"I have to handle my place of business," Mercedes defended.

"Then play with your dogs, call your friends on their lunch breaks and tell them how you're learning measurement cups and kitchen appliances, then you of course have to have a big daily dosage of reading, listening to music or books and singing to yourself. Is there any time, besides after you two leave the house and hit the sack that you just set aside exclusively to dedicate to my son?" Mary asked.

"I guess not, but he's never complained about any of it. We have a very open relationship. I think that if something bothered me, he would tell me…"

"And risk upsetting you? Look, I don't know what kind of medicine it is that your horribly bothersome friend Quinn always calls to ask you about, but there is obviously something problematic about your health. You have a disability and a health issue and Sammy wouldn't feel comfortable saying anything that might stress you out."

"Did Sam say something bad about me to you?" Mercedes asked, genuinely concerned as to why the woman was coming to her with all of this. "Because I seriously would have thought that Sam and I were better than for him to go whining to his mother about me when he sees me everyday." Mercedes flinched. She had not meant to blurt that out, especially not with that tone.

"He didn't have to say anything. A mother knows her child. There are things that we can see that no one else can, when it comes to our children. I see Sam trying to be deeply in love with you and you holding him at bay, while you frolic in your routines."

Mercedes was embarrassed and defensive, now. "I didn't know that I was doing that. I don't have much experience with relationships and I haven't had many examples."

Mary took a deep breath, "Sam doesn't have much experience, either – but I'm sure that you've learned that he knows how to make a woman feel special. I can tell you feel his love. Just, give him the same dedication. That's all that I ask, as his mother."

Mercedes took a deep breath and thought for a while. _Should I tell this woman what I have to say about what she just said to me? _Before she had the chance to talk herself out of it, the words flew out, "Mrs. Evans, I'm not trying to be rude, but if Sam can't tell that I love him and care about him from the months of sheltering, feeding and providing emotional advice and support that I've given him, then maybe nothing I do will be evidence of how I really feel."

"But, didn't you do all of that for Sammy before you ever even thought about being in love with him? That seems like just your norm. So, showing that you're actually in love would take something else, I would presume. But, if Sammy is as in love with you as he seems, I doubt that it'll matter to him. He'd sooner love you, no matter how much of a distance you keep between the two of you because of whatever past insecurities you have, that it's clear you've brought into this relationship." Mary watched as Mercedes' face distorted several times. She could tell that her words hit home and she rejoiced inside. "What do you think of pumpkin pie for dessert tonight?" Mary asked, as though nothing happened.

"Are there any pumpkins in the store, this time of year?" Mercedes asked softly.

"You're right. Pumpkin pie is not in season. How about strawberry shortcake? Sammy loves it."

"Whatever you decide," Mercedes said, still thinking about what the woman had said to her. One of two things was happening. Either Sam had gone to the woman and complained about his issues with her (which she highly doubted, because she trusted Sam to be a bigger man than that) or the woman could actually see that Mercedes had brought old bad habits into her new relationship. And if she was right about that, maybe she was right about all of it.

The thing that Mercedes hated most about this woman exposing her flaws and faults so much was the fact that all it took was a nudge, and Mercedes would, of course, take it over the edge… She didn't know how to stop herself.

Her mind went to the fact that she could hear the way people speak about people who were her size. She knew that many people were not very attracted to people like her and some even tried to make them feel bad for even having the audacity to look the way that they look. She always found it unfair. Although she couldn't see, she did the things that people told her to do to look like what the world saw as appealing. She exercised, regularly and generally ate really healthy (it helped with balancing the chemicals in her brain, as well. She and Quinn jogged every weekday. She walked the dogs, several times a day and had dance sessions with Mike and Brittany every other weekend, at least. Why was she even thinking about that? All because of this woman! And damn it if she didn't have any nerve pills on her! "Mercedes, dear – are you alright? You look a little ill," Mary commented.

"I left my medicine at the house," she admitted.

"Oh dear – is it your blood pressure or diabetes?" Mary asked, seriously.

Mercedes said with a straight face and a pretty impolite tone, "Chemical imbalance in the brain." Mercedes reached out and touch Mary's face, when she heard a tiny gasp escape her lips, then she began laughing and said, "I love the expressions that people make when I tell them that." She didn't even need her nerve pill for the pleasure that Mary's shocked reaction gave her.

But then, maybe she shouldn't have said that. That simply added to the list that Mary seemed to be making against her and the mother-girlfriend relationship was already delicate, here. Now, Mercedes was thinking about all of the things that were wrong with her. She lucky to have Sam, wasn't she? She certainly should make sure that he knew that she felt that way. Maybe she was unconsciously committing self sabotage, pushing Sam away because was already such a good guy that she was afraid that once he was happy and put back together, he would drop her like the hot metal pot handle on the fire. She would have to talk to him, soon. She had to explain herself. She didn't want to lose him, not ever!


	6. Seeing With New Eyes

This takes place during the chapter The Reckoning, after Shane and Sam's meeting and Sam is back in the shop, living with Mercedes again.

**Seeing With New Eyes**

Sam smiled thinking about Tuesday. They reentered the shop, he with a new fresh hair cut, though his face was battered and bruised. Yet, he was still smiling as wide as his hurting face would allow, at nearly everything she said to him. She was "bored," so while he worked, she tagged along, sometimes handing him tools to fix something, sometimes just leaning against something and answering questions that he was asking her about herself. He was doing a lot of work in the stockroom and the basement, because his face was still so messed up that Quinn didn't want him around any of the customers.

"Let me ask you a question, Sam," Mercedes said. He waited, watching her thinking face in the dimly lit basement, suddenly aware of how that unconscious flutter of her eyelids that she sometimes did was really hot to him, for some reason. She asked, "Why didn't you defend yourself or even shield yourself when Shane was hitting you?"

"Who told you that?" Sam wondered, wondering if she thought that he was less of a man for not trying to get out of that situation. That's how it was on the inside. If you didn't fight back and if you didn't fight back hard enough to win, you may as well be a fag, because you're gonna get treated like a b*tch._ He had yet to get used to not saying those words, much less not thinking them…_

"Artie, of course. He said that Shane ran towards you, not even really that quickly, hit you with one fist to knock you down and fell to the floor, beside you to keep hitting you. Artie said that he was surprised that you didn't even cover yourself. Isn't it just natural reflex to cover yourself?" She asked.

He sighed and admitted, "I SAW Shane and I remembered what I did to him, the moment that I looked at him. When he charged at me, I panicked, but I also was thinking about how I ran up on him. I knocked him down. I hit him as hard as I could, as many times as I could, until I was tired. He tried to defend himself, and it didn't work. I figured I owed him all of the free shots that he would put in, before he got tired. I didn't really want to get beat up, but I didn't want to hurt him either, and I know that if I had defended myself, he might have come at me so badly that I may have snapped." He stared at her, looking thoughtfully, though her eyes were closed. He added, "I know that probably makes me some kind of punk or a freak or something."

"Actually, Sam… I think that you're a very interesting character for that mindset," she told him. _Sam's ass probably should've been thrown into the institution, with us, _she thought. No sensible person truly thought like that, did they? He couldn't really be that saintly, that he would peacefully endure a beating that demolished his facial composition in order to not hurt someone he'd already hurt…

_(In between chapter 6 and 7: After Sam's back, but before Valentine's Day)_

Three weeks had passed and Puck and Mercedes had not gotten back together. Sam sporadically smiled about that several times, almost as much as he smiled about the fact that when Puck came around, it was obvious that Mercedes was not interested in being with him. He wondered if he had anything to do with her step back from her ex. So far, though she was kind beyond all explanation to Sam, she had this airy, detached way of handling him. She treated him like a treasured tenant, a valued employee and even a nice acquaintance… nothing more. He was unsure of what he was _expecting_ her to do.

Wasn't he only those things? Maybe he was just thinking about self preservation… because honestly, who would allow their woman to harbor another man in her home? If she and Puck got together, he was probably going to be out on the streets. Puck had never wanted him living in the shop in the first place, but after that mess with Shane – there was nowhere else for him to currently go. Besides, he liked being at POM.

Even though it was quaint and he pretty much had a curfew, before precious Lauren came around and let him know that anytime he needed to get inside of the building to simply call her and she would come to let him inside. (Though he wouldn't inconvenience her like that, unless necessary, he appreciated it.) He also appreciated having drinks with her and the pleasant attitude she held while on the clock, too. "So… you like big girls or just the one?" Lauren asked him as they sat on her couch, having drinks. It was so late that he elected to not even go back to the shop, and Lauren agreed that he should sleep on her couch.

He laughed and said, "Just the one… How did you know?"

"Everyone knows. Just like everyone knows that she likes you too."

Sam laughed and lifted an eyebrow, "Do they really? I've never known that. In fact, she's never seemed to me like she knows that I am actually a _man. _I really feel like in the past few weeks, I probably might as well be one of the girls, to her. When we have group breakfast or group lunch, it's the two of us with Quinn, Kurt and Tina… Kurt _refers _to himself as a girl, but do you know that if I do that, I'll get glares from the depths of hell and Mercedes will tear me up and down with her tongue." He laughed at his choice of words and so did Lauren.

"Someone has to say it!" She said.

"No, no, no, no, no, no…" He repeated, almost like one word.

"The window's almost shut!" Lauren said. "It's almost too late – I can't resist!" Sam put his fingers in his ears and began to sing loudly as Lauren said, "Wanky," and exploded into laughter.

"I hate that word," he said.

"I think it's pretty funny, because no matter what's happening or where she is, when she hears something that didn't sound right, she says it," Lauren said.

"She's growing on me, I think," Sam said.

"You do, do you?" Lauren asked.

"Santana can be vicious, but she'd take a bullet for Mercedes and I respect that about her," Sam said.

"Wow… I have no words…" Lauren said, staring out into her living room. "Oh, wait, no – yes I do! Somebody's in LORRRRVVE!"

"Who's that?" Sam asked, seriously looking around the room for someone else. Lauren laughed, then stopped when she saw how serious he was.

"Sam Evans… You just said that someone was _growing on you, _because she would and I quote 'take a bullet' for a woman that you care for. You don't think that's a bit extreme? And to only amount to growing on you?"

"Exactly. If I was in love, wouldn't I be dedicated to Santana for taking a bullet?"

"I don't know and if I think too hard into it, I'll get a drunk-thinking headache. So, I dismiss my statement."

Lauren's words got to Sam, though. He unloaded several gifts for Valentines' Day, even though it was still January, they prepared early. Valentines' Day, Mother's Day, and Christmas were their busiest times of year, according to Quinn and Santana was always on the phone, making sure that deliveries were on time and orders were correct. Each time Sam looked at another gift, whether it was tacky, cute or elegant, he wondered what Mercedes would think of it.

Blaine came in to make a special order with her, as Valentines' Day was his favorite holiday and he and Kurt generally tried to get custom made gifts that appealed to each other deeply and personally. "Thank you, Santana – I am so excited about his gift this year!"

"You means _gifts,_" she corrected him.

"Well, of course the main and most expensive gift had to be ordered right after Thanksgiving, but all of the custom made side gifts are just as endearing to him. This year, we're going to start off our spring cleaning by making a trophy room for our gifts!" Blaine clasped his hands together, excitedly.

Sam stared at him for a moment, before asking, "Do you have enough gifts to do that?"

Blaine laughed and answered, "Of course! Kurt and I have been together since high school. This year, I turn 23, he turns 24. Next year, we celebrate our ten month anniversary, on which – we will be getting married!" Sam didn't mean to frown, but he felt himself do so. Blaine ignored it and asked, "Are you doing anything special for Valentine's Day?"

"No," Sam answered, as though it was obvious.

"You know what I did for the first Valentines' Day that I wanted to impress Kurt? We weren't together yet, but I knew that I wanted to be with him and I wanted him to know it, too… I went to the school of the blind, when they let out, went searching for Mercedes, before she got on the bus to go home, and I spoke with her and exchanged contact information, so that I could be sure to pick out the perfect gift for him."

Sam's eyebrows raised and he asked, "Was it successful?"

"Of course it was! Mercedes and Kurt are each other's longest friendship. Even though they aren't as close as they used to be, they are both still extremely close and they know each other like their own anatomy," Blaine said.

"There's still like three weeks until Valentine's Day," Sam said. "I heard you say that you started ordering in November?"

"Kurt and I do not play around when it comes to Valentines' Day," Blaine said.

"Does Mercedes like Valentines' Day?" Sam wondered.

"Not really. She's usually alone and can get a little melodramatic. So, Puck will take her out on a date, some place where there's music and get her something that smells nice, some candy or baked treats to appeal to her taste buds and probably some type of article of clothing that has a very nice feeling material. He always gets her something for each of her senses." Blaine placed his hand on one side of his mouth and added, "And it's usually virtually the same boring thing."

Sam nodded, then casually tried to ask, "Are there any holidays that she really does get a kick out of?"

"Not a holiday, but a special day… four days later – February 19th… her birthday is always a huge deal. She loves it and goes all out on having fun. There's always partying, drinking and music. This year, I think it's karaoke. Last year, we put on a performance of every single song in Rent for her."

"No idea what that is," Sam said, honestly.

"A musical. She enjoys musicals, concerts, really anything with singing or music."

"Yeah, I noticed. So, her birthday's right after Valentines' Day."

"Yes… but we celebrate it on the weekend, because it's one day out of the year when everyone really lets loose. You'll enjoy it," Blaine said.

"I haven't been invited," Sam stated.

"When are you ever invited to anything?" Blaine asked, which made Sam laugh. He had been simply going along wherever Mercedes went, and no one really questioned it anymore...


	7. The Apple of My Eye

_This takes place on a weekend some time after Mercedes gave Sam the journal, but before Valentines' Day._

_Drabble requested by gurlchocolate: The moment that Sam knew he was truly in love with Mercedes_

**The Apple of My Eye**

Even though he had yet to actually write in it, Sam took his journal with him everywhere. It occurred to him that aside from the necessities that Mercedes provided for him, this was the first tangible gift that he had gotten in years! How was she so amazing? She _genuinely _cared about everyone, _everyone, _even if they were simply rotten people; she cared about people. She sang like a professional and her voice could bring tears to your eyes. She was wonderful with the dogs, but even more impressive with children and babies.

God, she would make a perfect mother, he thought as she picked up the pig and felt on it. They were at the petting zoo with some of the handicapped children from the community center. "What is this thing? This thing must be a bear!"

"NO!" The children cheered.

"No? Well, then! Is it a chicken?" She asked them.

"NO!" they laughed.

"Are you guys kidding me? What in creation am I holding, then?" She asked them.

"Pig!" The children were excited to answer.

She felt the animal again and said, "You kids are smart. You're so smart! Well, let's see, if it's a pig, then it definitely has to say MOOOO!"

"NO!"

"No? Why not MOOOO?" She asked, doing the entire full "moo" for them.

"That's a cow!" The kids yelled out different versions of the same statement.

"So, what does a pig say, then?" Mercedes asked.

"OINK, OINK!" Sam laughed as she continued to play this game with them, using a sheep, a duck, and a pony. It had been his idea to take them to the petting zoo, and that was because Mercedes felt it would be too hectic to try to take them to a carnival that was passing through. A few times, she got on the ground and pretended to be certain animals, so that not only their kids, but other kids at the petting zoo could ride on her.

Sam, in a moment of impulse reached over and pulled her to him, "Climb up," he said, helping hoist her onto his back.

"What am I supposed to be climbing?" She asked, with a laughing, shaky voice.

"Me," he told her. She laughed even harder as she felt little hands press against her backside, trying to assist her get onto Sam's back. He reached for her legs and hoisted her up. "Now, you get to ride," Sam said, giving her a piggy back around a small open space in the area. She laughed as he ran around, carrying her. She had to admit, she had never been given a piggy back ride. She generally gave them.

"Sam, do NOT let me go!" She command when he jumped over something.

He smiled and said, "Nope, never." He realized what he said and stopped running. All of the kids were running behind him and they stopped too, and exploded into laughter about what they had just seen. Sam gently stood Mercedes up and squeezed her hand. "Wasn't that fun?" He asked her. She smiled brightly and nodded.

"But, whose next?" One of the children asked. Then, Sam had to run around with different children on his back. After all of that, most of them were ready for a nap. Sam had the littlest of the kids being carried on his shoulders, while he held the hand of the next littlest and the two after that held Mercedes' hands, though she also held Cluster and Kissy's leashes.

"You were great with them, today," Mercedes said, impressed, as they helped all of them into their seats in the van.

Sam smiled and said, "I'm actually pretty sure that _I'm_ an overgrown child, myself – so I get along with them, pretty well. Besides, I've always wanted kids," he shamelessly admitted. He watched this look of surprise cross her face, then her expression settle into a soft smile. "Shocked?"

"At first, I was, because I immediately thought about the fact that you have yet to speak about what you want in a woman, so I guess it threw me for a loop that you talk about wanting kids. But then, I thought about who you are – strong but nurturing and protective but respectful… You would make the perfect father, Sam. Some lady's going to be very lucky to bear your children."

"What about the lucky guy who is going to get Miss Mercedes Jones to become his gorgeous little Missus? I was watching you with the kids. I always watch you with them. Not only are you going to be a perfect mom, but you'll be a wonderful wife, too…" Sam said and bit his lip. He'd said entirely too much and Mercedes' face seemed to agree with that last thought. Mercedes shut the back door of the van and got into the passenger's seat, now suddenly quiet. She hadn't even said thank you, mostly because she was trying to figure out if that was supposed to be a joke.

Sam made sure that each of the children was secured in their safety belts before climbing into the driver's seat. "I think that I'll drive around for a while and give them a chance to get a proper nap," he said as he buckled up. He looked over at Mercedes and said, quietly… "I meant it. You will."

"People say things like that, like they really consider me like any other woman, but they really don't. People think of me as blind first, then as a woman… and for whatever reason… the blind part becomes difficult for people to get past long enough to see the woman part," she said, softly and sadly.

Sam hadn't started the car, so he reached over and grabbed her hand, "I have no idea how _any _mancould look at you and see anything other than a woman. The man for you is never going to let your blindness deter him from getting you. I wouldn't," he said, bit his lip again and winced. Mercedes shyly withdrew her hand from his hold and chuckled.

"Whenever you finally get around to going after that woman for you – the poor thing is not gonna stand a chance against all of that charm," she said, uneasy. Soon, she reached for the radio and turned on some soft music, as to not disturb the kids. Sam began driving.

Sam could. Not. Sleep. After the long nap ride that he and Mercedes took the children on, after they dropped them all off at their homes, when it was just the two of them, she said, "I don't even know if I can have children. He reflexively pressed hard on the brakes and she reached for the dashboard to still herself.

He apologized, then asked, "Why did you say that? I mean, did doctors tell you that? Is there some kind of issue? Because… you know, if there is – there are plenty of babies and kids that need a mom like you who have nobody. I mean, it's not like it's hopeless, even if you have a condition or something." Mercedes smiled slightly and Sam stared at her, wondering what was going on in her head. That still way that she silently thought… it always intrigued him. He always wanted to be in the center of her mind, surrounded by the glorious thoughts that must be there.

"I have a condition that I take medicine for and I don't want to discuss it, but I may not be able to get off of it; even if I can carry a child – I wouldn't do it, because of the other condition. It wouldn't be fair to a child or a man to do that."

"If he loves you, really loves you – he'll do whatever it takes to be with you," Sam pressed.

Now, Mercedes mused, "You know, every time you say things like that, you say them like you know somebody who wants me like that." Sam's hands tightened on the steering wheel, but he didn't reply. After a moment, she asked, "Has Puck said something to you about me?" She asked. Sam felt his face turn red and he had to bite his lip to not snap at her. Puck?

"No. Puck and I aren't that close," Sam said. He and Puck sort of seemed to have this quiet understanding that they both wanted the same thing – her, and that made it difficult for Sam to be as friendly as he would like to, though he wasn't hateful towards him, or anything. "But, I do know someone who pretty much thinks the world of you," Sam admitted.

Mercedes smiled brightly and told him, "You are the sweetest person, Sam! Sometimes I wish that we weren't just friends." Sam flinched when she said that. He was about to refute it when she kissed him on the cheek and stepped out of the vehicle. How she realized that they were at the shop, he didn't know – but she headed for the shop, with the dogs like she hadn't just flipped his world upsidedown with that statement. So effing flippant! She frustrated the hell out of him!

Sam rolled the window down before she made it in and said, "Hey, Miss Jones? I just remembered that I have some personal stuff that I need to take care of, if it's okay?"

"Sure, Sam. Thank you for being my chauffer today. Lauren needed this day off."

"It was my pleasure. It's always my pleasure to be around you," he said. She laughed and went inside. Sam began to head for the Magic Mirror. _Sometimes I wish that we weren't just friends… _He wished that a lot of the time, more than he even ever allowed himself to admit.

Sam stopped the vehicle and sat outside. If he went in there, what would he say? "Hey Kurt, I know that Mercedes helped your lover win you over and I'm trying to do that with her, now." or "I have been thinking and dreaming about Mercedes Jones every single day and night, and today she may have given me the green flag to let her know." Sam shook his head, having no idea what he was going to do, because he wasn't even sure of how he really felt. This was a special situation in which he owed her a debt of full gratitude and maybe that was why… "Stop it, Sam Evans!" He fussed at himself. _Why am I fighting this so hard? _"Who the hell tries to fight off what's best for them? Who tries to deny the best thing that's ever happened to them? _Someone who doesn't believe that they deserve the best. _He froze at the door of the place.

Oh God – he felt this way for her within a matter of days, and it had just continued to grow and grow, but he knew that he didn't deserve her. That was why he fought it so hard. That was why he never moved forward. But, hell, if she _wished, _even _sometimes…_ Kurt saw him entering the store and smiled as he made his way to the distressed looking blond. He was going to greet him, but Sam stopped him in his tracks when he said, for the first time, out loud (and Sam would recall, he realized it for the first time as the words flew out of his mouth) "I'm in love with Mercedes." He clenched his fists, shut his eyes and took a deep breath and shook his head. When he opened his eyes, Kurt was looking at him, compassionately.

"Of course, you are!" Kurt said and offered a hand out towards his office. Sam nodded and the two of them began to head for the fancy room, while Tina worked on something in the back of the store.

"I don't know what to do, Kurt. I want her to be mine," Sam said.

"Then you've come to the right person," Kurt told him.


	8. My Mind's Eye

_I hate to do this to you beautiful folks, but if you had a drabble request that you submitted to me – please PM it to me again, because I damaged the thumb drive where I was keeping the list of your great ideas! This time, I'll be sure not to lose it! Thanks in advance!_

_Occurs during the time that Mike and Tina are away from the rest of the group, some time after Emma's attack, Matt and Sam's meeting, etc…_

_Drabble dedicated to babygirlgilena, who is always SUCH FUN to communicate with. I wish we lived in the same town and could chill at Barnes and Noble together to laugh at funny book covers and have lots and lots of tasty treats inside of the coffee shop in there. Based upon a phrase that she's made real in my headcanon: Phasia-Chang. _

_P.S. I knew I shouldn't have watched Black Dynamite the other night!_

**My Mind's Eye  
**

Tina fell asleep watching Bleach with Mike. She didn't really understand these anime cartoons, but it was something that apparently Mike and Sam both loved and the two of them had a marathon of this very cartoon a few weeks ago, when Sam and Mercedes came to visit. Right before everything in life went completely to hell! She would never forget what those monsters did to Kim and she was terrified, wondering if Kim had known why they were doing this? Had she known that they did it to hurt _Tina? _"Bastards," Tina mumbled. Mike glanced at his little woman and sighed. Poor thing still wasn't sleeping well…

"_Ladies! This is not a game! These people are trying to kill you. What are you going to do, Sisters? We cannot afford failures!" Tina yelled at Quinn, as Quinn tried to do a pull up. "I'll bet your daughter has stronger arms than this! What are you doing, Fabray?"_

_Aphasia clapped her hands, hard and screamed, "Crawl! Crawl! Crawl! What kind of soldiers are you?" Mercedes and Santana were crawling beneath a barbed wire and when Santana came out, she helped Mercedes from under and they ran to try to climb a rope up a wall._

_Then, there was the demonstration. Brittany, Lauren, Becky, Santana, Quinn, and Mercedes all sat, looking on, as Tina came out, dressed in an all charcoal cat suit, with leather straps all over her, strategically placed, for all access to a variety of several different knives, and Aphasia entered, with a similar suit of shiny black, but with an arrangement of many guns placed all over her. "This is what a soldier does, Ladies…" Tina said._

_ White hooded "ninjas" began to jump out of everywhere and Tina, with ninja type reflexes, began to jump all around fighting them, in montage style – whilst she also split screened to give beads of knowledge and training to her friends. Quinn was perfecting the usage of a whip, while Santana was issuing out skills with poisonous darts and poisonous gases from a small ball. As one Tina fought off the hooded enemy, the other, on the other side of the screen made Mercedes practice using her other senses to her advantage and strengthening her reflexes and fighting skills._

_ Aphasia was just as tough in her scrimmage with the fighters. She shot ones afar off, dodging their stars and blades like a pro, as she fought, then tuck and rolled. Tina and she stood, covered in sweat, the destroyed bodies all around. "That is what a soldier does!" Tina said._

_ The next thing that happened Mercedes, in her purple catsuit, Santana in a red one, Quinn in a white one were all given their belts of honor, by Tina, and they walked, for whatever reason, with fire behind them to the Nazi headquarters. Tina lifted her favorite blade into the sky and screamed, "Charge!"_

_ Quinn thought about falling on her face in the mud , and slapping herself with the whip, accidentally, during training. But not here, here, she swung that whip to encircle the enemy and snap them in half. Here, she slapped someone with her weapon and it cracked open their flesh. She snatched weapons out of hands, elbowed faces and kneed crotches._

_ Santana thought about being knocked unconscious with an odorous rag and stuffed into a trunk, the horror of waking up inside of it, the resolve that it would never happen again and; she, with a sultry walk, not even afraid to face her enemies, for one moment snuck up on the unexpectant with her poisonous finger prick, threw the darts at others and when surrounded, loosened one of her bombs and flipped out of sight._

_Aphasia was running as fast as her feet would carry her to dodge the barrages of bullets flying her way, she flipped and dove behind something, came up for a quick unloading of her full clip, hitting every target, within moments. She rushed out of her hiding place, ran up and off the side of a wall and spinning kicked a gunman to use him as her shield to fire her way into the building, with her girls trailing behind her, fighting their way in._

_Mercedes heard something. Someone was approaching… She turned swiftly and began to fight the attackers who tried to stop the crew from the rear. She was spinning, kicking, and punching. Her kickboxing skills were unmatched and when she had laid all of them down, the ladies ran inside. Upon entering, they saw, standing at the top of the stairwell – Will Schuester, Russell Fabray and Paul Karofsky. Will laughed like an evil villain, lifted his hands and said, "Attack!" A hoard of other fighters came out, rushing upon the women, and now, suddenly, all of the women were engaged in hand to hand combat. _

"_This is what I've trained you for!" Tina said. She, Quinn and Mercedes rushed up a path to the top of the stairs, while Santana, Brittany, Lauren, and Becky fought the pawns. Santana used her poisons. Lauren picked up guys and threw them over her head, picked up others and squeezed them unconscious. Brittany did movements that looked like seductive dance, right before Sonya Blade snapping her opponents' necks. Becky was literally busting balls with her fists and feet._

_ When Mercy, Quinn, and Tina got to the top of the stairs, Russell immediately came after Quinn and Paul immediately came after Tina. Mercedes listened for signs of Will. It was hard to determine where he was, with all of the noise around her. She would have to utilize her smell, too. She turned, poised to knock him the hell out at her first chance and break every bone in his body. But somehow, he snuck up on her and captured her in his arms. "Sorry. You've lost," he whispered in her ear…_

"Fish paste!" Tina screamed out, as she woke up. Mike looked at her and spewed out laughter. She was breathing hard. "Oh my God!" She said. She snatched the remote from the table and said, "This," she cut the tv off, "has to stop. It's affecting my dreams." She set the remote down and reached for his hand, "You have to come to the bed. I need help sleeping. And…" She cupped his face, "I have to go home."

"But, it's dangerous…"

"Yeah. It's even more dangerous if you haven't been trained on how to defend yourself. They need me there, Mike."

"I never felt right leaving, anyway," he told her.

"So… in the morning, we can go back?" She asked, cheerfully.

"Of course. Besides, I need to watch anime with someone who can appreciate it, and within our circle, Sam is that only someone," Mike teased. She stuck her tongue out at him and pulled him to the bedroom.


	9. Too Blind to See

_Drabble requested by masterajoy: The moment Mercedes knew she was in love with Sam; _

_and Gwenefly: What was going through Sam's head when he tried to kiss her on Valentines' Day._

**Too Blind to See**

Kurt, Tina and Mercedes were going through her closet and drawers. Kurt and Tina were pulling certain things out, and tossing them into one pile, other things into another pile and some things, they would ask her about. But, she was merely thinking about the things that Kurt had just said to her on the elevator. Everyone had been so convinced that Sam Evans was either in love with her or falling in love with her, well _no thanks! _

The last thing that Miss Mercedes Jones needed was to fall in love with another man down on his luck, so that the moment he found some ounce of hope in life, she would be thrown out like old clothes. She knew what she heard, and she was grateful that she never entertained any of the words her friends whispered to her about Sam out loud. Unfortunately, her head and heart may have entertained them a bit, in secret… _What if he does like me that way? _She sometimes wondered.

Recently, she had began to hang out with Sam a bit before going up to her apartment. She still locked the elevator, out of habit; but she felt completely safe with him in the place. When she heard him asking Quinn about Valentines' Day, she could admit (only to herself) that she was jealous. It really burned her up, if she was going to be honest (with herself and herself only), and after that, she was determined not to pay one shred of attention to anymore of her friends' takes on her and Sam's friendship.

When they went to the petting zoo that weekend, she had to admit that she had never had more fun with the children – not when it was her and Shane, or her and Artie, or her and Joe or even her and Puck hanging with the children. Plus, every child was so excited about Sam's epic babysitting that mothers and others involved in the children's lives began to bring Sam cookies and other baked treats and small gifts. Mercedes had a feeling that some of those bitches were flirting, then she felt bad for thinking of them as the "b" word and said a silent prayer for forgiveness.

Sam had not really been saying much to her from the petting zoo, through Valentines' Day. He seemed to be busy in all of his free time and seemed kind of preoccupied after his shift most days. She never would have guessed that it was because he was working on a Valentine's present for her. When Sam presented that thing, she felt all of her insides on fire. She thought that she might _melt. _First off, he made her close her eyes and open her hands… He didn't even know (no one knew that she'd always envied the way the sighted was able to do that – to have the anticipation of the surprise to build up). For her, everything that someone handed her could be a surprise, but people never thought to prep her for it. They always thought to warn her or tell her what she was being handed.

Then, when his lips brushed against hers like butterfly wings, she thought that everything would combust. Good Lord, even the slight graze of his mouth was delicious and if she had not heard Puck's voice, she knew that both of those mouthwatering lips would have ended up captive to her tongue and teeth… But, she _did _hear Puck's voice and when she did, reality set in – _The two of you almost kissed!_

"**I am not interested in Quinn. Not, like that. Not anymore," he said. She nodded and shrugged her shoulders. "Don't do that, Mercedes. I'm serious. I'm not into her. I needed you to know," he said. ** "Coffee's ready!" Puck called. Mercedes became frantic. _Oh, God.. You almost kissed someone, after you promised yourself that you wouldn't cave to base desires anymore, especially for someone that you're helping to care for! _She rushed out of the backroom and quickly headed for the elevator which led to her apartment.

Her breathing was labored and she felt hot and heavy and confused. She heard Puck call out to her. She heard Sam's sad voice apologize, but she needed to get away from this, away from both of them. She needed some balance. KURT! Why on Earth would Kurt help Sam give her a present? He _knew _how she felt about fawning over her charity cases. Sam Evans was in no position to be kissing her and if she had, wouldn't she be taking advantage of his weakness? Wouldn't she be taking advantage of his gratitude? She almost started crying as she called Kurt to tell him precisely how she felt about his tampering!

Sam was pacing almost the entire time that Mercedes was gone on her date with Puck. God, what if he was buttering her up? She seemed more open to affection lately and Sam knew that Puck will have noticed that Mercedes was… lonely? No, it was more like she was ready to be cared for. But, she'd told Sam, more than once that she did not want Puck that way. He always found roundabout ways to get those comments out of her. It was music to his ears to know that. Sam would not rest until he could see her, tonight.

It was raining and he was torturing himself with the thought of Mercy and Puck snuggled up together under a large umbrella, walking closely with her body brushing against his. He finally sat down. This train of thought was simply going to make him crazy!

When he finally heard the door, he jumped up and made his way to it, hoping that Puck would drop her off and hit the road. Maybe he could even end up lucky enough to end up snuggled up to her glorious body with the rain raging outside.. He sighed, of course that wasn't going to happen, not tonight, anyway. But, at sometime, maybe - if he could fully get his point across tonight… Sam held strong to one of his fists with his other hand, took a deep breath, then rushed towards Mercedes.

She had some sprinkle on her, where the rain most likely snuck under the umbrella, and half of the side of her clothes were damp. She removed her coat, and hung it up, looking amazing in her red, pink and white dress and a pair of white leggings beneath it. Her hair was pulled up, and she had on a little bit of makeup, but no lip coloring – just those juicy, plump little petals with a coating of gloss on them. He wanted to just lick… just one little taste…

He gave her the gift and he could tell that she was trying to play it off as a nice gesture, but that gift got to her. It was written all over her transparent face. He knew that she loved it. He knew that she loved the way that he presented it. He noticed how pleased that she was that he was treating her like he would any other woman that meant something to him… and _that _meant something to her. Her lips! They were like, beckoning him.

Then, when he began to try to finally tell her how he felt – the fact that he didn't want Quinn and he needed her to know that, he just couldn't resist. Those lips had been calling his name the entire time and he could have sworn that she stepped towards him. He moved in, slowly, allowing his lips to brush against hers, first. So, if she really didn't want it, she had the chance to step back or tell him off. She did neither and he was determined that he would snatch her up and kiss her until he knocked her socks off. Puck obviously had other plans. _Damn him._

_(At the end of the chapter The Rift) Within the next few days…_

Mercedes had no idea how she was feeling. Sam had tried to kiss her, then told her it was a mistake. Puck had kissed her, then went to start a fight with Sam. She had no details on what happened, but she knew that it had much to do with what had happened between her and Puck. Quinn told her that she saw Sam shove Puck into the bus, but Sam nor Puck mentioned anything about it to her, after the fact… and Mercedes was not going to ask.

By the time her birthday came around, she was simply ready to relax after the past four frustrating days. She was ready to enjoy celebrating the fact that she had made the milestone of another year alive and to simply enjoy it! The day started out great, breakfast, being pampered, the works, as per usual on this day. Then, there was lunch with Sam.

**"I don't care what our differences are. If there's a way to reconcile 'em – I'm gonna figure it out and I'm gonna fight to make it happen." **As though it wasn't bad enough for him to say such a thing, then he had the nerve to hold her in his arms. His arms were strong, but gentle. They were hard muscle, but delicately held on to her. "You smell so good," Sam whispered in her hair. She smiled against his chest at the little groan that he let out after admitting that. "What is that scent?"

"That'll be a mixture of oatmeal, honey, almond, chamomile, Shea butter, cocoa butter and jasmine… that's all the stuff that I always use for my hair and skin.."

"You always smell good. You just… today…" He inhaled deeply and exhaled.

"You aren't usually this close to me," she whispered, as though it were some grave secret.

_(During the chapter The Rhapsody)_

After Sam sang that song, Mercedes' head was cloudy. He had been laying it all down and laying it on THICK, for the entire week… well, maybe even before then. Maybe, he was putting himself out there after they left the petting zoo a couple of weeks ago. Maybe, just maybe he actually did feel… she shuddered and shook her head. She was not going to easily accept that without proof, then a very hard fight. By the time that she had the opportunity to speak with him in private, he was drunk and pouring out his poor little heart. He was so serious and sounded so sincere.

She wanted to let him down gently – to explain to him that he was in no position to try to be involved, but it sounded better to tell him the reasons why she was not the one for him – she couldn't be in a relationship and she would not take advantage of the feelings that he was professing to have by indulging herself in kisses and such. Sam. Refuted. Her. He _wanted _the kisses and the hugs and whatever else he could get. He promised not to be pushy and to just accept whatever she wanted to do. No one had ever said anything like that to her. She was always being told what to do or having things suggested to her repeatedly, until she was tired of debating, even in her relationships, they never went at her pace or seemed like they were for her benefit, at all. It always seemed one-sided, with her on the shorted side. But, here was Sam Evans and she couldn't resist the urge to kiss him.

As she did, she could not care less about what she had just said. She knew that they shouldn't be in a relationship, and she was not going to ever suggest that they did get involved, but she might have to take him up on his offer to be physically or emotionally available to her. In fact, she didn't even know if she could stay away from the man. As their lips danced together with a kiss of perfection, she already knew… she wouldn't be able to resist him much longer. There would come a time when he might get ahead of himself, and if he did, she was most likely going to follow him there, or anywhere else. _Oh my God, I think that I might be in love!_


	10. Who Is That Girl I See

_This takes place when Tina and Mike came back from their short-lived time away._

_Drabble requested by babygirlgilena: Tina and Stacie convo after the guys leave them either before or after her mother leaves, maybe even Tina teaching Stacie a few moves to protect herself possibly talk about her sister with Stacie_

**Who is That Girl I See?**

Tina and Mike pulled into Emma's driveway and she saw several vehicles, amongst them – Quinn's. She must not have been playing when she said that she was on her way after the disturbing call that they had received on three-way from Cedes. Tina sighed and approached the place. She was not ready to be back in this mess by a damned sight, but Mercedes needed her sisters and Tina knew how that bond and that need was. Missing her sister had become a daily burden. She wished so badly that absence did not have to feel like emptiness, but in this case, it did. When she saw two young girls, or even two adult women who looked alike, she thought of what could have been…

Entering the house with her copy of the key, she started when she saw an unfamiliar blond teenager wearing a pair of jean cut off shorts and one of Emma's aprons. "Hey…" Tina said, eying the kid, suspiciously. "You know where Brittany is?"

The girl smiled brightly and announced, with a Southern accent, "Yeah, she's making sure that all the rooms are cleaned up while my daddy and brother change out the carpet in Miss Pillsbury's office."

"Oh, your service, then," Tina said, almost relieved. There was no telling who those people could reel in to help them.

"Well, we don't really have much traveling money, so Miss Brittany is letting us rent out rooms in exchange for us helping to fix the place back up for business while my brother's in the hospital," she said.

Now, Tina finally had a look of realization. Of course! She looked like him, and everything! "Are you Stacie?" Tina asked, having talked with Sam before about his little sister.

She smiled and nodded, "And you're Tina, right? I've heard so much about you from Sammy and Mercy, especially Mercy. It's nice to finally be able to put a face to your name." The girl rushed over to Tina and gave her a big hug. "Oh, sorry. I've been dusting." She said and looked down at herself. "I didn't mean to get it on you."

Tina waved a hand and pointed her thumb towards the rooms, "I'm gonna go find Britt and Quinn."

_(While the group is waiting for Sam to come home from the hospital)_

Stacie watched with so much interest as Kurt spun the sais and twirled them about. "This is very therapeutic," he told her and handed her one. She laughed as she attempted to do something with it, then shook her head and handed it back.

Tina said, "Let me see your hand, Stacie." The girl held out her hand and Tina studied it for a moment and touched it. "You have big hands, for a woman. You've got long, thick fingers and…" Tina shook her hand and nodded her head, "A firm grip. You work a lot with your hands."

"I do gardening, sculpting and painting," Stacie said.

"So, you know how to use a shovel, a hoe, a rake… but you can also wield a brush. You could learn a weapon, probably fairly easy."

"I know how to chop wood," Stacie said, with a shrug. Then, Tina smiled at her and Stacie added, excitedly, "Oh! I've taken up archery before and was halfway decent at it."

Tina pulled a knife out from a band that she wore around her calf, beneath her pants and said, "I was thinking more along the lines of hand to hand weaponry. Sure, archery can come into good usage when your castle is being stormed, but most of the aggressors that a woman is going to face in life are going to be the ones that dare to put their actual hands on you. I believe that it's never too early to learn to defend yourself. Have you ever taken a martial arts class or anything like it?"

"No. My parents couldn't afford stuff like that. I didn't get to do a lot as a child," Stacie answered. Tina smiled, sympathetically and began to position Stacie's body to show her a few stands. She also wanted to make sure that she knew the best ways to physically respond if someone tried to jump on her, grab her from behind, charge at her and grab her from the front.

Stacie felt like she was learning well, as Tina practiced coming at her again and Stacie practiced defense and offense in such a situation. Tina told her, "With everything that we have going on, I think that Mercy probably needs to brush up on her self-defense. I talked her and Quinn into taking one of the first official classes that I ever took with me when we were sixteen. I don't know that she's been keeping up with it."

"You keep up with it?" Stacie asked, practicing her punches.

Tina nodded and said, "My main form of exercise is my defensive fighting training. But, I also like to busy myself with knife throwing and stab aim. Stab aim is very important, because if you don't have a good handle on it, you could kill someone that you're only meaning to injure or only injure someone that you're trying to kill. These details are extremely important. Life is not a frivolous thing and those who deserve it should be able to enjoy what little of it that they have." Stacie's eyes focused on Tina' slips as she spoke and the woman smiled at the girl. Stacie looked so confused about whatever it was that Tina was saying. "I'm sorry. I was just thinking about the number of women and girls who die due to violence and abuse. It's a very saddening thing."

Stacie nodded her head, sadly. She then offered, "Well, I want to learn how to defend myself. It's always been a situation where if anything ever happened with me, Stevie comes to my rescue. Since we're twins, we're pretty close and we go to the same school; so, I'm never at a lost for defense… but what if there comes a day when Stevie's not around to protect me, you know?"

"Oh, I definitely know. It's no easy thing to constantly protect a sibling, no matter how much you love her…" Tina's eyes drifted off, then she blinked and quickly said, "Or him!" She forced a smile and touched the girl's shoulder, "I know that your brothers, both of them would love to be your personal bodyguard forever and a day, but in the world that we live in, it is impossible for any human being to be diligent enough to always be there to protect someone else – no matter how much you love them. So, it's only reasonable and fair that you learn to fend for yourself." Tina let go of her and went on to teach her a few more tactics.

_(While the rescue team is out to find Aphasia and Quinn in the chapter The Rescue)_

Stacie practiced her punches and kicks. She wished that she had a punching bag, because all of this was quite scary, but equally or more frustrating. Where the hell had her mom gone off to? Talkin' about smoking… Stacie swung an extra forceful punch at the air. She could just sock Mary Evans in the face for making her worry like this! Her mom should be right here with her, instead, she looked around to see Tina staring curiously at her – probably making notes to herself of what Stacie needed to brush up on – and Mercedes, listening to music and tracing a 3D photo of herself and Sam, repeatedly – like she wanted to always remember exactly what the two of them looked like together, in love. That made Stacie temporarily smile, and momentarily forget about everything that was bothering her.

Stacie turned to freeze when Tina's busted fist swung right at her face and paused in front of her eyes. Tina smiled, softly and said, "You have the moves down, excellent. I was watching you practice and your punches are wonderful and your kicks could do some real damage. But, you have this thing about focusing. With surprise attacks, focus is of little consequence. That's why it's called a surprise attack – because you don't expect it. But, when you know that you might be a target, that makes for your expectancy level to rise, therefore your focus in daily situations generally becomes more acute."

"I feel like you have lived an entire life of being a target, or something, with the way that you talk," Stacie said, pushing the fist from her face and trying to take a swing at Tina.

Tina blocked the swing and met her with a swing of her own, which she paused, making certain not to connect _any _actual hits with the teenager and said, "One thing that I really love about you, young one, is the fact that not much gets by you. You're observant and not even afraid to speak your mind about the things that you see. Those are admirable qualities." Stacie smiled and nodded, and Tina came at her from another way, which Stacie was able to black and try to come around with a hit of her own at Tina.

"So, why were you a target for so long? Did you live in a hostile area, or something?" Stacie asked, as Tina blocked the hit and separated from her, to regroup.

"I did. I used to call it home, but eventually I realized that it was never that. My home was yet to be found," Tina responded with a shrug of her shoulder and a grin as she wet in to come at Stacie again and Stacie stopped her.

Stacie's eyes were serious and she looked like she might start crying, so Tina paused and stared at her. "I'm sorry," Stacie said softly. "I mean, I know that I don't know what it is that you've gone through, and even though it's made you tough and smart and built up some character in you – whatever kind of pain you went through, I hate that you had to go through it." Stacie's lip quivered a bit and Tina couldn't help but to pull her into a hug. She had no idea that within a night's time, things were going to change so drastically for the young lady.

_(After Stacie finds out about Mary and Stevie…)_

Everyone had stuff to do, to prepare to organize, and so on and so forth. Santana and Tina had both been keeping watch over Stacie, and now, the three of them were having drinks. One of them had lost their mother to suicide. One had lost her mother to terminal illness. One had just lost her mother to murder… Stacie giggled and pushed her glass away, "Sammy and Daddy are gonna wanna kill y'all if they find me like this!"

"Oh my God, this kid is such a lightweight," Santana said, shaking her head, incredulously.

Tina nodded and said, "All she's had was a half of a glass of wine."

"I've never drunk before," Stacie said. "Stevie has, but I don't do that. They expect me to keep the level head. Stevie's not even supposed to drink, because of his explosive anger medicine. Do either of y'all have a brother?"

Santana shook her head and took a sip of her drink, "I was the only one, but I had several honoraries growing up, and of course, a number of play cousins."

Tina stared off into the distance and said, "I only had a sister. She recently died, though." Stacie gasped and Tina went on to tell her, "She was taken from me, by the same people who have been hurting us."

"The people who took my mama?" Stacie confirmed, then started crying.

"Seriously, in hindsight, it was a terrible idea to give a teenager in grief alcohol," Santana said to Tina in a low voice.

Tina ignored Santana, though she totally agreed, and told Stacie, "That's why it's so important to me that you can look after yourself. I know how these people are. They don't care who they hurt and they don't value any human life and don't even consider some humans to be humans. They consider some of us animals, so they don't value animal life, either." Tina took a drink.

Santana's eyes widened and she titled her head, "Well, damn… both of you have had more than necessary." She got up and took the glasses from both of the females to get rid of the evidence.

Stacie rushed to Tina and threw her arms around her. Tina smiled, and pulled Stacie onto her. The girl laid down and settled herself against Tina. "You were probably the best sister in the world to her, Miss Tina. You're being a really great sister to me and you hardly know me, so I know that you were a hero to her," Stacie said, before falling to sleep.

Tina patted her on the hair as Santana came back into the living room, and placed a finger over her lips. "I think she's finally getting some rest. The wine probably was a good idea, after all."

When Stacie's family returned in the moving truck, she was on the couch with Santana and Tina, eating some Chinese takeout and watching Mulan. Mercedes and Sam entered and Stacie's face lit up to see them. "Hey – we're gonna just have all of your stuff brought up here. It's all in boxes with your name on them," Sam told her. He gave her a kiss on the forehead, greeted the other two ladies, then said, "I'm going to go properly lay down after being in the back of a moving truck for the past four plus hours." His eyes questioned Tina and Santana, both – and they knew that he was wondering if his little sister had been okay while he, his father and Mercedes had been gone for the past couple of days.

Tina reached out towards him with her fist and he greeted it with his own fist, as she informed him, "We have been, talking, laughing, eating, drinking, and most recently, picking apart every fallacy in every Disney movie that there is."

"You cynical witches are gonna ruin Disney for her?" Sam asked, jokingly.

Santana shrugged her shoulders and quickly replied, "Well, after the way that your grouper mouth has ruined lip care products for everyone who has had to look at your face…" She smiled at him and winked at Stacie.

Stacie said, "I want lips like that." This cause the women to laugh. Stacie looked at Mercedes and rushed to hug her. She kissed her on the lips and said, "I missed you, Big Sister!"

Sam waved a hand and said, "And none for big brother." He smiled at his two favorite ladies and headed for the bedroom.

Mercedes and Stacie sat down, and Stacie handed Mercedes a container of food, "There's still some lunch left," she told her and Santana and Tina got back to tearing the movie apart.

_(This was actually going to be a part of the next chapter of AFAECS, and still might be, but I thought that it was also fitting, here, because of the mode of this drabble)._

Stacie was having trouble sleeping (surprise, surprise) and she had exactly no desire to program herself to have a glass of wine every time she troubled herself with these thoughts. It was almost lunch time and Pieces of Mercy would be closed. Santana, Tina, and Mercedes would come to see about her…

Santana took one look at Stacie and knew that she was having such a hard time adjusting, still. She loved the ladies and all, but nothing could take the place of the mother and brother that had been ripped apart from her, and while Dwight was trying extremely hard to be there for her, it was difficult, because she knew that he had a lot to deal with, as well – plus, she didn't want to distract him from looking for work.

Mercedes said to Stacie, "Remember when we first met and I told you that I have the quirk of singing when I'm sad, scared or lonely? I also like to sing for other people. We put together this presentation for you, Stacie…"

Santana began to sing the song, "Regrets collect like old friends. Here to relive your darkest moments. I can see no way, I can see no way. All of the ghouls come out to play…" Sam came out of the bedroom and watched the three women sing to his little sister. "Shake it out, shake it out. Shake it out, shake it out. Oh whoa. Shake it out shake it out. Shake it out, shake it out. Oh whoa. And it's hard to dance with the devil on your back, so shake him off…" They might as well had been singing to him, as well. He leaned against the wall and allowed them to finish, and didn't disturb when Stacie hugged all of them, with tears in her eyes, before she lie down and they began to sing to her again.

This time, they sang "Goodnight Sweetheart…" and she actually fell to sleep. Sam smiled and went back to bed, not wanting them to know that he had seen the moment with his sister. They all seemed to love her, just like one of their own. But, it made sense. They _were _his family, and now, Stacie, by relation (and more recently emotional connection) was accepted as their family, as well.


	11. Seeing Things in Black and White

_Drabble requested by QTFics: why Sam's mom hates black people so much when she in fact had an affair with a black man…_

_Combined by request by Allicattie3: Mary Evans knowing Betty Wright's music period, not to mention the words to Tonight Is the Night!_

_(I know that everyone hates Mary Evans and was glad to see her go, but I do still have drabbles in my records that I promised I would address, if requested, so…)_

**Seeing Things in Black and White**

It looked like it would be another long night for her. Mary Evans went in to check on her kids, before doing anything else. She peeked into Stevie and Stacie's room and smiled at the fact that they were so enthralled with the bedtime story that Sam was telling them. The twelve year old was so good with the two of them! She simply watched as he seemingly made up the story, on the spot, probably making his six year old siblings more excited than tiring them out for sleep. "What happened then, Sammy?" Stacie asked with wide eyes. Stevie simply held the covers, tightly waiting in silence at the next portion of the story.

"Then," Sam said, "As I stand before God, the huntsman kicked the door in and threw his ax. It swiped the Big Bad Wolf down and flew back to him, like a boomerang! Red's looking at the wolf that she thought was Grandma, waving her hands around and screaming! AAAAAAHHH! AAAAAAAHHH!" Sam began mock screaming in a high pitched voice and waving his hands around. Mary lifted an eyebrow at him, but none of the children even noticed she was there.

"He had to tell her, 'Hey… Hey, Red… It's alright. That wasn't your Granny, it was a wolf, Baby, Yeah! He rips the wig and glasses off of the dead animal beast, and Red _really _starts flipping out…"

"But he calms her down and lets her Grandma out of the closet and they live happily ever after," Mary wrapped things up as she came in to kiss them goodnight.

"Way to ruin the end of the story, Mom!" Stacie said and folded her arms.

Sam winked and said, "Don't worry, I'll give you the way more fun ending tomorrow night." He hugged and kissed the tikes goodnight, as well and walked with his mother out of the room.

Sam almost immediately realized that Mary was wearing one of her work outfits. "You have to go in tonight?" He asked.

"Yeah. I have the opportunity to get some extra hours in. Dwight's already told me that he'll be in late, so I'll need you to make sure that your brother and sister are alright tonight and If there are any problems before your daddy makes it home, I have the number on the fridge of how to get in touch with me," she told him. This was her first time having to go into work at night. Sam hugged her goodnight and watched her go to the car to leave, before locking the door and heading to his room.

Mary got out of the car, and gathered up her stuff and headed inside of the office building that her cleaning firm sent her to. Her contact person was somebody named "Chili," what the hell? She rolled her eyes at the paperwork. Probably a damned Mexican. Wouldn't _that _be ironic? Her having to report to a Mexican for maid duty… She buzzed in and security allowed her entry, and showed her to the floor where she would meet Chili and get her assignment.

Chili was a black man, who spoke extremely well and seemed quite polite. He complimented her and spoke to her like an actual person, unlike many of the people that she ended up having to work for as a maid service. He showed her the offices that she would be expected to clean up and left her to it as he went to continue his own work.

Mary soon noticed that as he worked, he listened to music and sang along with it. She cleaned all of the other offices, first. She always left his office for last, because he was always in it – every single night that she worked. She wondered if he was _always _there. "Miss Mary? Do you have any Kleenex on your cart?" She heard him call out. Mary's blond eyebrow raised, as she didn't realize that he remembered her name, but she grabbed a box of tissues and went into the office, to see him shaking his head as he got out of his shirt. He had a T-shirt underneath, but obviously something had spilled on him. "Damn it. The ink's not going to come out of the shirt, but I can't do my work with blue all over my hands," he complained.

"I've got some cleaner that might help to get it off," Mary offered and reached on her cart for some spray.

Chili tossed the shirt into her trash bag and held out his hands for her. "You need to put them over the trash. If I spray them and the ink drips onto the carpet, they'll hold me responsible," Mary told him. Chili placed his hands over the trash bag and let her spray them with the strong smelling cleaner. A song began to play on his radio and he moved his head and began to sing along, which struck a smile in her. "I guess just let it sit, for a moment," she suggested, then started trying to clean the ink off of his desk from the leaky pen, which she tossed into the trash.

"_You said you'd be gentle with me and I hope you will. I'm nervous and I'm trembling. Waiting for you to walk in…" _Betty sang, making Mary blush as Chili sung along.

He began to wipe his hands off and Mary asked, "Did that help?"

"Helped enough. I can't mess up any of my records. I've worked hard on that stuff," he told her. "But, I feel like we deserve a break."

"We?" She repeated.

"Yeah, Woman. We got Betty Wright singing, we have an empty office building and both of us have been working up a sweat!"

"I've been working up a sweat. You've been sitting at a desk, writing notes and punching buttons, while you sing," she corrected.

"Well, trust me – the notes that I have been writing have been extremely important, therefore extremely tiring and the buttons that I punch affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people's finances." He shrugged. "It's not physical work, but trust me – it's no picnic. Now, come one, Woman. Betty's singing. I feel like cutting loose."

"Cutting loose?" She repeated.

"I just want to dance, Miss Mary," he told her. "Unless that makes you uncomfortable." Mary smiled slightly and admitted that she wasn't much of a dancer. "I need to teach you to step out, then," he said, collecting her hands and showing her a few moves. "There's stepping out every Friday night at Happy People's Groove."

Dwight Evans came home from work and glanced at Mary. She had on a new dress and she was all dolled up, "Where did you get that dress?" He asked.

"I picked it up at a thrift shop," she said, happily and went to try to give him a kiss.

"Damn it, Mary! What did we discuss about you spending money on unnecessary things?" He began to scold.

"It wasn't a lot, Dwight. I know that you've been working hard and I wanted to do something nice for you, so I prettied myself up and I wanted to wine and dine you."

"Mary, I appreciate you trying to cheer me up, but spending the little extra money that we do have on it is not the way to do it. Can you bring that back?" He wondered.

Mary began to cry, "If it's all the same to you, Dwight – I'd like to keep it!" She snapped and slammed the bottle of wine into his chest. "Good night!"

"Mary… I'm sorry… Mare-" Dwight tried, but she slammed the bedroom door and he heard the click of the lock. Damn, he wouldn't even get a blanket tonight? He heard the lock again, and she tossed out a blanket and a pillow and slammed and locked the door back.

This was not good. What was she thinking? When Chili asked her out, she should have told him that she was married and that she simply takes her ring off when she's working because it's the most expensive thing that she ever owned and she didn't want to lose it or mess it up. Instead, she gave him other reasons, all of them flaky excuses that he shot down. He finally said, "If it's because I'm black, I understand. Hell, if you just don't like me, I understand. But, don't come with the excuses, Mary. Tell a man, straight up."  
She sighed and said, "I'd love to go out with you, Chili."

"Great. Happy People's Groove at 9:00," he said.

He was teaching her to step. Mary was never at a loss for rhythm. She spent many-a-night at the honky tonk, two-stepping to country music and enjoying drinks with her girlfriends. This was something different, altogether, though. Chili was such fun to be around. He complimented her all of the time and she never had to worry about what he thought about her, or how he felt… because she didn't really care. His feelings and thoughts weren't too important to her. This was just a good way to have fun with someone who made her feel good about herself without ever having to deal with people knowing or caring.

Hell – nobody that she knew spent any time inside of Happy People's Groove. She had never even heard of the place before going there with Chili, and after she began going, she hardly ever saw another white face, with the exception of a few real niggerlovers and/or wiggers. Sometimes, she would be the only white person there.

And when she thought about her everyday life – she knew that she would never run into any of these people in it. She only went a few different places – work, the store, church, and to her friends' houses. She couldn't remember seeing very many colored people at the stores near her homes (mainly because they didn't too much racemix on her side of town), and she NEVER saw them at church or her friends' homes. Seeing any of the people at work that she saw at the bar wouldn't be too bad. She never talked to any of them, and even if she had – she didn't wear her wedding ring to work, because she was afraid of losing it while cleaning up. This arrangement was perfect…

Plus, when talking to her two best friends about hanging out with Chili – she thought that they might talk some sense into her, but from both the ladies Saunders and Nelson, she was given support. That was one of the purposes of black men – to fall over themselves to please a white woman. They didn't blame her for eating it up, at all. Though, she was warned to be careful by Saunders and told to indulge by Nelson. "Indulge?" She repeated. "That's terrible! Just the thought of it makes me SICK!"

"I've always been morbidly curious about getting on with one of them. I mean – what kind of ding-a-ling does it take to satisfy those sex-crazed women of theirs? I've been so curious. If you find out let me know!" Mrs. Nelson told her. "And if you get caught, tell everyone he forced you. They'd believe it. Those guys are animals. They rape white women all of the time, and the ones who don't fantasize about it."

For weeks, Mary was having none of it. She shivered with disgust thinking about crossing those lines… but gradually, it became less disturbing to her. Gradually, she too was curious. As things between herself and her husband became worse with their lack of money and his lack of romance, she became determined. Even if Dwight never found out – she wanted to make him pay for being so apathetic towards her. She wanted to punish him for not wanting to take her out dancing or to show her a good time. It became an act of defiance against the man that was supposed to love her. It became a fun and convenient way to flip her old man off!

And she would never have to pay for it. No one would ever find out. When she met Chili at the hotel, he was playing music. She recognized it as that song about the woman's first time, and it made her a bit nervous, but at the same time – she was ready to take this risk. She was ready to indulge, to feed her curiosity, and to venture into something daring and exciting. But mostly, she knew that if Dwight ever DID find out that she let a black man touch her, it would be the biggest insult to him that there ever was. He'd probably rather have his cock removed!

She had no idea how she would ever actually respond if her husband did find out. But, just knowing, deep down inside of what she was doing to pay him back for her feeling of being unwanted and underappreciated… well… she felt empowered in her choice, as Betty sang in the background, on the CD track that Chili had playing on repeat.


	12. Can't Seem to See Past It

_Drabble requested by QTFics: What was going on in Quinn's mind when she was verbally berating Sam while at the same time being a bit flirty and making out with him in the restroom.. (I do want to say that she didn't make out with him the bathroom, but he kissed her and for a moment, she kissed him back (Because them lips lol), then she came to her senses and shoved him off._

_It's sensitive material, because y'all know how Quinn's history is, now.  
_

**Can't Seem to See Past It**

Sam watched as Quinn and Santana laughed together, again. The two of them were like freaking school girls, always giggling and chatting when they could be working. Isn't that what they were being paid to do and wasn't Quinn always giving him grief about him taking too many breaks or not doing enough work? He came up to the two of them and heard Santana say, "Honestly, if I were straight, I'd ride those juicy lips…" She glanced at him and quickly said, though QUITE smoothly, "So the inventory has been updated and the orders will be placed by the end of the day." Quinn smirked and nodded her head. Sam simply pursed his lips at Santana. She knew she hadn't been talking about any darned inventory.

"Miss Fabray, do you mind if I take a break?" He asked, ignoring the fact that they were probably talking about him. He used to think that females weren't as bad as guys, but he knew that wasn't true. Sometimes women could be as sexually berating as men, even though some of them complained that it was impossible to be sexist towards men, because men were still the dominating sex, or something like that.

"Have you done some work today?" She asked.

"I've done some, but if you have any tension that you need to work out, I'm sure that I have the energy to assist with that, Miss Fabray," he blurted.

Santana fought a smirk and scratched the back of her neck. Quinn and Sam both ignored the fact that she mumbled out in a singsong voice, "Wanky."

"Excuse me, Mr. Evans?" Quinn asked, turning red in the face.

Sam answered, coolly, "I have been told that I am an excellent listener."

She frowned and one of her eyebrows rose, "You can take that break, now. When you get back, I have some additional things for you to handle." She proudly rolled her eyes at him and turned to look back to Santana with the brightest smile. Sam tried not to look too pissed off as he went away. Quinn glared at the back of him.

"So…" Santana began, "It's clear that you like him."

"Don't make me vomit," Quinn said. "He's attractive, definitely… but look at who he is. Think about what he's done and what he could do."

"Are you kidding? It isn't like you have to remind me. Not only am I Latina, but HELLO – friend of the Rutherford family, over here. But, why the hell does it even bother you? Isn't dear old daddy one of those types, too?"

"Yeah – that's _exactly_ the problem. He reminds me totally of my dad. I remember after we got out and got settled in and I tried talking to my mom again. I asked her what the hell she saw in him. You know, WHY would she marry somebody like my dad? She starts going on and on with this little twinkle in her eye, about how polite he was and this and that and I kid you not, every time I look at that tatted skinhead Lima loser, I can hear her descriptions of what my dad was like when she was stupid enough to fall in love with him. It makes me want to throw up and I don't believe for one moment that he's changed or trying to. But, just like Puck reminded me, Mercy's more likely to keep him around if we try to make her push him out," Quinn said, looking at Sam lay back against the bench outside of the shop.

"And, let's not mention that they hate all minority groups. I sort of think that my I don't know, half Jewish little girl kind of fits into that category. I just wish that I could do something to make Mercy make him leave. Maybe if I'm bitchy enough, he'll throw the towel in and move along. Hell, isn't his family out of state, or something? I'd foot the bill to send him to Tennessee with them."

"I don't think that they're IN Tennessee. I think that they're FROM Tennessee," Santana said, "And I don't think that fish-lip sucker is going anywhere. He seems like he's slightly obsessed with our girl."

"I would never allow it," Quinn said.

"You gonna have sex with him. Make him detestable in her heart?" Santana asked.

"No. I mean, it's been a while since I've been with a man and he's honestly one of the most physically attractive people that I have ever seen… but doing something like that with someone who would hurt Beth, hurt you, Tina, Mercy, and Shane? It's just gross. I feel bad whenever I look at him and see something sexy. I feel bad when he flirts and I actually like it. Ugh! I don't know. He's one of those slick ass guys that can get away with anything. I mean, the fact that he's here today and not still rotting in a prison cell is a shameful demo of his privilege and our screwed up 'justice system.' Plus, I've seen him shirtless. It's horrifying to see all of that ink. Those images. I wouldn't even be able to concentrate on anything but his face…"

"His face isn't bad, though. Plus he has those lady lips. Looks like if you kissed those things, you'd be stuck for life," Santana said.

"They are nice…" Quinn said, thinking about the possibility of kissing Sam. She couldn't lie and say that she wasn't curious about how his mouth might feel, but like she said, the thought of it! UGH! "Why don't you shut up about this, anyway! I don't want to think about kissing that jerk!" Quinn snapped and stormed away. And she didn't want to think about it. But, for whatever reason, she simply couldn't stop herself from being curious about it. Hell, maybe she should just do it once, for experimental purposes. She sighed and shook her head, to herself. No – Mercy liked him.

She hated it and did not approve, but she could tell. Mercedes liked him, and if she did anything like that to Mercy, it would hurt her, whether or not she'd admit it. She never thought that she would actually hope that Mercedes started seeing Puck again, but Puck had changed a lot over the years and was probably ready for the real thing. She wanted to think that whatever was best for her best friend was not going to be wrapped up in the damned package that was Sam Evans, but even though Mercedes and Puck seemed to be heading back to good, she saw that there was some unspoken something between her friend and the Nazi.

Puck had better get it together and make an impression. Because the last thing that she wanted to see was Mercedes being the damned trophy girlfriend for a scumbag like her father… She blinked and shook her head… like _Sam_. But, that did remind her, she wanted to call her mom and check to see how she had been doing. Sam came back into the shop, and he looked like a wounded puppy as he came over to find her for his next assignment. She felt kind of bad for him, but she pushed that all the way to the side. She hated him and she wanted to keep reminding herself of that. Otherwise, he might blindside her, like men like her father always eventually did. Men like Sam Evans.


	13. My Eyes Gave Seen the Glory of the Comin

_Drabble requested by Alliecattie3: Sam and Mercedes attending church in KY._

**My Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord**

Mercedes was singing along with the choir as they sang Glory, Glory Hallelujah, but her version was more soulful and her voice, though it seemed like it should have clashed with the very beige choir that didn't even seem to believe in what they were singing, it went well with them. It outshined them, but it was very fulfilling for Sam. Mary, however stared at Mercedes, as she _butchered _the songs unto the Lord that the choir was trying to sing. Others in the church seemed uncomfortable and shy about the only black face in the entire building, singing like she was going for the number one spot at the Apollo Theatre.

Mary noticed that Sam's eyes were shut and he was rocking from side to side a little. Obviously, he was used to his girlfriend being so bold and disruptive during church. A few times, when she hit a certain note or tore into a certain part of the hook, his head jerked to the side a little and a small, but thoroughly pleased smile crossed his face. He would open his eyes and gaze at her with adoration, then look towards the heavens, thanking God for a woman who not only loved him, but also loved the Lord. Mary watched them both, curiously.

Stevie refused to even turn their way, as he blushed with embarrassment, because Mercedes could sing – there was no question about that, but she clearly didn't understand the difference between whatever church she went to and this one. This one was collected and everything done in an orderly fashion. Stevie imagined her praising in one of those churches like they had on the opening of True Blood, with the pastor jumping all over the place and he tried not to laugh at the thought in his head of a blind girl "getting the Holy Ghost."

Dwight nodded his head. That little gal could sure sing. She had one of those voices like this colored woman that used to close out shows at a blues club that his band played in when he was a younger man. She was slaying those notes and she was singing the songs as though she had been through something and she was here to testify through song. He loved that. It was beautiful to hear. So many times, Dwight thought that people seemed way too relaxed about the fact that they served a great and mighty God. Sometimes, he wanted to shout, but it seemed out of place, or something.

Here was this young lady, who obviously never cared about what other people thought of her – because she was with Sam, at his side, held his hand, and everything else, and now – she was praising God in spirit and in truth.

As Pastor Lavender preached, Sam spent most of the time standing up, with folded arms, nodding. Sometimes he finished the man's sentences and sometimes, he called out praises for God. Dwight was interested in the fact that some others were doing the same thing, when that hardly EVER happened at this church.

Mercedes remained in her seat, but she and Sam, several times would be spouting out the same or similar shouts. Like when Pastor Lavender said something about not being ashamed to praise the Lord, they both chuckled and cheered, "He's been too good!" Almost in unison. And when the Pastor said something about how people will always have something negative to say about you, but only you are responsible for whether or not what they have to say about you is true.

"You control what you do, not how people view it. If they look at you and see something bad when you know that you've done all that you can to do right and be good, then let them see what they want to see and you just keep praising the Lord!" The Pastor had said. To which Mercedes lifted a hand to wave in the hair and shouted, "PRAISE!" While Samfist pumped and said, "Amen."

The couple was always on the same page, even at the times that they disagreed… if that made any sense. But, Sam loved the fact that whenever they were in church together, they were always so in tune. It made him feel safe in his conviction that not only did God want them together, but God had brought them together. He believed that God was not some distant God who simply watched as things took place, but that God had made this woman, extra special for him and had given them like souls and kindred spirits in order to better enjoy Him with and each other.

When they went to worship, it always made Sam have hope in them and what they could become. He knew that he loved her and he knew that she loved him, but when they were in the presence of God and worshiping Him together, Sam could think of nothing more precious and sacred to share with her and usually, following a service, he could daydream for hours about doing so with her as his wife, taking Easter pictures outside of the church with their kids, helping her up the church ramp when they got older…

He smiled down at her when the Pastor mentioned, "Some of y'all have never so much as said 'Amen' in this house of the Lord until you saw Brother and Sister Evans from out of town praisin,' and you wanted to try to have a praise off with them. But God knows about your private and personal praise." Mercedes had simply covered her mouth with one hand and went, "Ooomp!" A few people went completely silent and the Pastor said, "Some of y'all got quiet when I said that. Some of y'all need to be more concerned about what God sees and thinks and less concerned about what your neighbor is going to say about you."

"PREACH!" Mercedes yelled out from her seat, as Sam simply nodded along with the Pastor's words, still standing, still smiling.

Stevie whispered to Stacie, "The congregation is gonna kick us out of the church after this sermon." They both began snickering silently and Mary threw them looks to stop them. Stevie cleared his throat and Stacie put her head deep into her Bible, with her shoulders still shaking with laughter. Sam and Mercy had definitely stirred some things up in the place. But, from the way that Mercedes talked about her regular church, what they were doing right now _was_ calm.

She looked over at her oldest brother and smiled at how excited he was about God. Sometimes, it felt like her family didn't love God as much as they claimed to. She struggled with it, because she frequently would start up a conversation about the Bible, and they would try to spin things certain ways to justify stuff that had no good business being justified. She was glad that Sam seemed to have a real connection to God and she hoped that she could go to him in the future when she had questions or concerns. Her parents were difficult to speak to about it.

Her daddy was willing to, but he could be kind of a hypocrite, at times. Her mother was much more stunted in her spiritual growth than Stacie was and the woman would get angry when she thought that Stacie was trying to twist the word of God around to fit her needs. Stacie wanted to tell her, "No, Mama, that's what YOU always do!" And Stevie was at a point in life where he didn't really know what to believe in, but she had a feeling that he didn't really believe in God, either. In fact, she was almost certain that he'd mentioned it before and they quickly changed the subject.

After church, the family noticed that people were acting differently towards them. They were curious about who Sam was and even more curious about Mercedes. Mary was a bit surprised. Even though people seemed very thrown off by them both during the service, everyone was very nice and welcoming. She was still embarrassed but now she was starting to think that she didn't have to be.

Sam helped Mercedes out of the building and told her, "That was not as bad as I thought it would be. It was actually a really great service."

"Well, you know what I say – as long as they preach that word, I'm here for it, even if the congregation was a little docile. Hey – everybody doesn't have that fire in their bones and I won't judge them for it."

"Their Pastor did they enough for everybody," Sam said with a snicker.

"He stepped on somebody's toes today. I feel it in my feet, and he wasn't even talking about me," she commented as they made their way towards the Pastor with the rest of the family. The man was already smiling brightly as Sam. He had been thinking, the entire time, _I can hardly wait to meet this lovely couple. God brought them here today to motivate me and they need to know that they did._


	14. Wonder if You Ever See Me

_Drabble requested by ngwai, tdminor86, and babygirlgilena… maybe others, but I know for a fact that they asked me about doing this: STEERIO! _

_(That's my ship name for Stevie and Cheerio – who is not actually an original character, but a minor character who is only listed as "First Cheerio Seen" in the Glee minor characters wiki… Because I frequent that mug for characters._

**Wonder if You Ever See Me**

Stevie had been in the place for a couple of months. He still wasn't talking. He decided that if he could make it three months without killing anyone, then he might say something to someone. It was easy not to talk. Everyone was effing crazy, here. He was able to get drugs that he didn't have to try to remember to keep up with. He was able to get drugs for all occasions… he never had to worry about that bothersome feeling of his chemicals being out of whack, because nurses quickly dealt with it. He had one problem – her. That damned black cheerleader with the big mouth.

First, it started when they were in the common room, watching television. He was watching the news. News was important and it wasn't like he had regular conversations to find out about current events. She came in and changed the channel, then looked at him and asked, "You weren't watching that, were you?" But, she sat down in front of the television watching some bullsh*t CW show or something, and complained about it, the entire time!

Then, in group therapy, when someone began to make fun of her, she sat, extremely quiet, like she was not going to say anything else. He watched her, waiting on her to strike back, but she didn't. She sulked, instead. He was disappointed. It might have been entertaining to see a fight break out. After therapy, she walked outside and sat alone on the grass. She wasn't supposed to be out there, at this time, but nobody was paying attention. He was going to point to her, but figured she needed some time alone and left her to it. The next day, he found out that she had been taken to the infirmary. She had tried to kill herself… He sort of felt bad that he hadn't pointed her out, then he felt annoyed that he was even thinking about this mess, at all.

Lastly, the thing that took the cake and put Cheerio completely under the skin of Steven Evans was when she turned on her obnoxiously bad music and began to sing to him. "OH! Steven – this can be our song!" She cheered. What the hell did she mean by "our song"? There was no "our" between them. "Because it's called Stereo Hearts. You're Steven; I'm Cheerio… STEERIO!" She said excitedly and handed him her notepad, "I know that you don't care to talk, so you can communicate with me through my pad. It's kind of a big deal for me. Usually, I don't let anybody touch it, but since we have a special connection, I'll let you write in it. Here," She gave him a pen, as well and he wanted nothing more at that moment than to stab her in the eyes with it.

Instead, he opened her notepad and saw doodling of their names together, drawn with hearts, inside of hearts, outside of hearts. He sighed. He didn't talk, so she had no way of knowing that he hated people like her… that he wouldn't even DREAM of her, like that. He was going to write her a long detailed note about it and what she needed to do with her misplaced affections – where she needed to shove them, but instead he simply wrote: _I don't like niggers. _He handed her the notepad back and got up to leave the room, like she wasn't singing and rapping that stupid song to him… Moments later, he felt a wadded piece of paper hit him in the back of the head.

"I'm not a nigger, you corny, flaky dumbass!" She yelled.

Stevie spun on the balls of his feet, more angry than he should have been about a paper ball hitting him and roared at her, "You are to me!" Everyone in the room froze. She had made him break his damned silence. That bitch!

He glanced around at everyone, then back at her as she gloated, "Well, if I am, then I'm the most important one in your life, because I'm the first person that you've talked to since you got to this place!" He glared at her and turned again to leave the room. He glanced at her, standing on the couch and dancing to Stereo Hearts. He hoped that she'd lose her balance and bust her face on the floor.

Stevie woke up to see a box of Corn Flakes on his nightstand and he grimaced, thinking about her words: _corny, flaky, dumbass. _This bitch wasn't funny. He picked up the box and went to find her, in her room, fast asleep. He opened the box and began to pour the dry cereal all over her, rousing her from her rest. "What in the hell?" She cried out. He tossed the empty box her way and it hit her square in the face. "What the f*ck is this sh*t? This is cornflakes? You _cerealed_ me? Oh, that is some flaky ass bull, Cornflake," she said and reached for a piece of the cereal, then started eating on it, mildly entertained about this. He frowned at her, tempted to tell her not to call him that, but not wanting to speak to her. So, he left.

He'd only broken his silence once in three months, but he hadn't killed anyone, so he began to talk at group. "I was in a white supremacy organization as a ghost skin in training," he said. "But, I eventually turned on my brethren, because my blood family was in danger and I killed one of my leaders." He looked at Cheerio, expecting to see horror or fear, or disgust, or something. What he saw frightened _him. _She seemed… impressed? Intrigued? He couldn't tell.

He walked slowly back to his room. He could feel her eyes on him and even though he told himself not to look her direction, he couldn't stop himself. When he did, she looked away, shyly and fought off a smile.. and she _blushed. _Stevie had no idea what to think about that. _I mean, we hate each other, _he told himself. So, why was it so cute when she blushed? Why was it so adorable that she was trying not to smile his way? Why was she so damned pretty and why the hell had he not noticed it before? He turned, aggravated that she was doing this to him, and went on his way.

It didn't take very long for things to get shaky at the home. Once the other guys found out about Stevie's white supremacist past, it was an issue. There were mostly white people in the building, but in his age group, several of the guys were minorities… and once he opened his mouth for the first time, the Stevie began coming out. Cheerio and he would argue, but she still seemed intrigued by him, no matter what kind of messed up stuff came out of his mouth. It was never really directed towards her, but he did know that she could be oversensitive. He sometimes tried to take it easier on her, worried that she might try to kill herself again, or whatever.

They were leaving one particularly tense meeting and she caught up with him, "You know, you don't fool me one bit, Cornflake," she said.

"Yeah?" He asked. "Why would I waste my energy trying to fool anybody, much more importantly, why would I waste anyenergy on _you_?"

"You try to fool people into thinking that you're this horrible person that hates people and couldn't care less about anybody, but you're actually a kid who didn't feel like he was loved enough, so you tried to find love and acceptance somewhere and you snapped when you didn't. That doesn't make you a bad person. I know how that is…"

"Go to hell, Cheerio," he snapped and began to walk quicker.

"What did I do?" She asked, chasing after him, quickly.

"You think that my family didn't love me!" He fussed.

"Well – you think that your family didn't love you. I'm just returning the information that you've given us."

"I never ever said that," he said and spun around to face her, too quickly whereas, she bumped into him and he had to catch her from falling over. He held her for a moment, staring down at her, and they parted, quickly. He folded his arms and she looked at the ground.

"You didn't have to, Stevie," she said – calling him by his name for the first time in a while. She looked up at him again and said, "I see you. I understand. I was the same way. My parents kept putting me in pageants and I was a cheerleader, in parades, in dance, in gymnastics, and I felt like I had to do every one of those things perfectly, or they would never let me come home. When I hurt myself and my mom asked me, 'What am I going to do with you now?' I thought that she should kill me. My life was over… I tried to do it myself. Why did I do that? It just made them less pleased with me." She shook her head and said, "You aren't a bad person, Cornflake. You've just been waiting on somebody flawed enough to be able to see that and let you know it."

She reached out and touched his cheek and he let out a breath. He had no idea how true her words were, until she said them. But, the moment ended when some of the other boys saw them and weren't too pleased. They started calling her names and she, of course, instead of just shutting the hell up and walking away, began to argue with them. Stevie pulled her by the wrist and began walking away from them, "Cheerio, you should know better than to entertain stupid niggers."

"Yeah – I'm gonna have to ask you to try to stop using that word, if we're gonna be friends, Cornflake."

"We aren't gonna be friends. I'm gonna say whatever I want, and it isn't like I was talking about you, this time. I'm talking about the fools behind us calling you a 'white man's whore,' and a 'house nigga.' Aren't they being really niggerish, right now?"

"You don't get to make that call," she snapped.

"I get to make whatever call I want," he argued.

"They are really acting like we aren't behind them right now…" One of them said, but Stevie and Cheerio barely paid them any attention, for their arguing about his using the N word, and whether or not the two of them were friends… They were arguing up until someone made a comment such as, "Hell her parents didn't want her, so she jumped on the first thing she saw…" Cheerio turned around and lunged at the boy.

At first, it happened so quickly that Stevie couldn't catch her, but once she was on that dude, she was trying to dig her fingernails into his eyeballs, and he punched her in her mouth to knock her off of him. That was when Stevie stepped in. He didn't know what the hell had gotten into him, but he did know that nobody was gonna put their hands on her… he was treating her like she was a regular girl, or something… no, actual, he was treating her like she was a special girl.

He beat the hell out of that kid that put his hands on her and when they were separated, threatened him, "Don't you ever touch her or say anything about her, ever again, or I will _kill _you!" Stevie's breath was hard to catch as he looked over at Cheerio, holding her mouth and watching everything with wide eyes. He stormed off, avoiding her for the next few days.

He got jumped, later, when there were no orderlies around and she rushed over, trying to get the boys off of him. But, she was knocked down and he made sure to cover her, so that she wouldn't get hurt too bad. When the boys took off, she cradled Stevie and asked, "Are you okay, Cornflake?"

"I will be. I'll be damned if I let cowards like that destroy me," he said.

"Let me get you some help…" She said and tried to move, but he held on tightly to her, not allowing her to go. He snuggled himself closer to her and just let her hold him. He would be fine. Right now, he just… really needed to be held. He couldn't remember the last time that something bad had happened and he was just held, afterwards. He had no idea why this need kicked in so greatly, now… but Cheerio's arms felt better than anything that he had felt in a long time, and he didn't want to leave them, even to have his current pain diminished. So, they were there until he was ready to let her help him up. When she did, she took his hand and they walked back towards their rooms.

He walked her to her door and she sadly asked, "Are you gonna be okay?"

"Yes!" He snapped at her. "I'll be fine. And next time, don't be so f**king stupid as to get involved. They could have stomped you into the ground!" she frowned, upset that he had gone back to snapping at her.

"I saw you getting beat up and I wanted to try to help you because you helped me out that night when I got into a fight."

"I don't need your help!" He hissed.

"Why are you being so damned mean all of a sudden?" She asked, pissed off, now.

"Because I can't stand you. I hate you and I want you to stay away from me!" He fussed.

"Fine," she said, with tears in her eyes and rushed into her room. Stevie rested his head against her doorway and sighed. There was an apology inside of him somewhere, but he couldn't conjure it up. This was for the best. He wasn't going to ever do anything but despise her, and there was no need for him to let situational occurrences trick him into believing anything else.

Once again, she was avoided. But, this time, she was hell bent on ignoring him. He watched her. He saw how hard it was for her not to come over, not to say something to him, do something, touch him. It made him silently smug, silently timid. Why the hell did they invest so much attention into each other? He hated her. He did, but he hated how alluring she was… how even though she was loud and obnoxious with that irritatingly chipper voice and unnecessarily jovial laugh… he still couldn't keep his distance.

They might not have been talking, but he couldn't force himself not to stare at her and when she looked back at him, when he should have looked away, he gazed at her until she did that irresistibly charming thing where she turned away, trying not to laugh, while blushing.

Then, she started getting all chummy with this other kid… She hung over his shoulder and talked really sweet in his ear, and called him, "Sugar Smacks." When they had group, she sat next to him and gave him looks and giggled at stuff he said – even when the sh*t wasn't remotely funny and Stevie tried his damndest not to turn red, but the way that the guy was undressing her with his eyes and how close their faces kept getting…

After group, he was walking behind them, and saw that they were holding hands and she was snuggled closely to him. He stormed right through them, breaking apart their contact without a glance at them. "Corny, flaky dumbass!"

"Go to nigger hell," he called over his shoulder.

"Crackers gonna crack! Your mom's a nigger!" She called out. Stevie froze and when he faced her, she stuck her tongue out at him. He stood for a long time, still, even let her walk past him, twisting her neck, before she grabbed Brody's hand again and kept walking with him.

The next day, when he found her, she was alone, under a tree, writing in her pad. She looked up at him, expectantly, but looked sad when she noticed it was him. He hated that. She used to light up and her smile would grow when she saw him. She used to look at him the way that Brody let her look at him. "My mom's dead," he said. She dropped her pad and her pen. "So, when you said that…" he shook his head, "Look, I won't ever call you a nigger again. I won't even say it around you. Please, don't ever talk about my mom again. I… I … almost choked you."

"I'm so sorry, Stevie," she said and crawled over to him to wrap her arms around him. He sighed into her hair, bit his lip and hugged her back. "I didn't even mean that. Hell, I don't know anything about your mom." She leaned back and looked at him.

"She was a bitch," he said.

"Don't say that," she told him.

"She was… but I don't want other people to say bad stuff about her."

She cupped his face and told him, "Well, whether you use the N word or not, you don't have to worry about me saying anything bad about her, again." Brody saw the two of them and stopped talking to her. She was devastated. Stevie was relieved. The two of them had a strange friendship, but it worked for them, mainly because no matter what they said to each other, no matter how much they fought or how unstable all of it was, she _saw _him, and he learned to see her, too.


	15. Seeing Through Your Eyes

_Drabble requested by ALLIECATTIE3: Joe doing anything, because I just love the man of God in this fic._

To welcome my beloved friend, Alliecattie back into the AFAECS world, I want to dedicate this particular update, which is going to be the a Stace-Face/Joe-Yo centered drabble, with mentions of the Joe/Puck broship… because I don't know how many of y'all remember that Puck worked at the community center and was important there.

**Seeing Through Your Eyes**

Stacie didn't particularly feel like dealing with a bunch of children. She liked kids – she simply wasn't really the 'classroom full of kids' type, but having the "job" of being Mercedes' assistant, she was told that every Thursday, at least (and sometimes more frequently, she would be expected to bring Mercy to the community center for time with the kids. This was going to be her first time taking her and she wasn't that excited about it, even though she tried to be.

Mercedes was tackled by the kids upon entering and she hugged them, passing out kisses and things as Stacie decided to simply tarry. Stacie wandered to a room that had a photo of a man with a Mohawk and a plaque beneath his image which read: Our Brother Will Forever Be Missed. She stepped inside of the room to see a wall full of drawings, presumably by the kids, artwork that had to be done by older artists than the children with Mercy at the moment, newspaper articles, awards, and photos. She saw a photo that had Sam in it, next to the guy, with Artie, Joe, Mike and Lauren. There were some others, even one with Sam and the guy with one arm around each other, grinning at the camera. "This was his office," Joe's voice startled her.

She turned to look at him, in a sweaty tank top that he always told her not to call a 'wife beater,' because he would never feel comfortable wearing something called that. She folded her arms and asked, "Is that Puck?" Joe nodded, sadly smiling.

"It was. When he was gone, we initially told the children that he would be back. We didn't explain rehab – only that he was sick and needed to get better. After he passed away, we had to tell them that he in fact wasn't coming back and that he didn't get a chance to get better…" Joe's eyes lightly dampened. "Some of the kids understood. We have children who have lost parents or pets. Some of the others took it harder. It was the teenagers' idea to make his office into a memorial. Shane immediately agreed. We let the older kids plan the set up and the younger kids make their own goodbye drawings or letters, and added to it all of the things in his office that his family didn't want to keep – old drawings from Beth and some of the kids here, stories in the news about him – good ones – and all of the different ways that he impacted so many lives."

"Wow!" Stacie said, shaking her head, "It's just that so many people seem to peg him as an alcoholic and a murderer…"

"He had issues with alcohol, but he was battling it and winning, most of the time. And… if Puck did commit that murder, then I have to say that even though I don't agree with murdering anyone, that I don't feel that his doing that terrible deed takes away from the many lives of kids that he has touched, and the things he's done for his loved ones." Joe smiled brightly and pointed to a photo of himself and Puck, on a stage, "This was a free concert that he organized for children in the burn unit." He pointed to another and said, "This was taken during one of his reading runs – where he would visit kids who had been abused, harmed, hurt or otherwise affected by alcoholic parents or guardians and read them stories." Joe wiped a single tear away and chuckled at himself for it. "People say a lot of things about a lot of people that I care about. No matter what Puck may have done wrong, none of it takes away from the fact that this is the man he was." Joe tapped a photo of Puck helping Artie into the bus while Mercedes and Tina were nearby laughing at something.

"You must really miss having someone like that around," Stacie said, eyeing Joe's face, sadly.

"I miss him every day," Joe said with a nod, "But, I know that he's in a better place. He deserved to be able to get away from all of this." He shrugged and clapped his hands together, one time. "I know that he and Sam had their problems, but I honestly believe that if given more time, they would have worked it out. They started out as potentially great friends and I had faith that they would reach that potential someday. I still believe they would have. If Sam and Matt could…"

Stacie nodded her head and chuckled, "You have a point," she said, then looked at more photos of Puck, "Where is this from?" She wondered.

"That was Bring Your Daughter to Work day. I brought my guitar," he said with a laugh. She laughed too. He pointed one out, "OH! This was one of the funnest days ever! It was during the April Showers Blessing Event a few years ago!" Stacie looked at the photo of Artie with one leg tied to one of Puck's and one tied to one of Joe's and she squinted in confusion. "It was a three legged race, but Quinn was tired of Artie not being able to participate in the events, so she asked her two favorite guys to help make it happen." Stacie sighed at the mention of her name, reflexively. "You.. don't like Quinn, do you?" Joe asked.

"She tried to have my brother killed and berated him right in front of his entire family, like he was nothing, you know? Sammy struggles enough with his guilt and self-esteem without somebody putting him through something like that," Stacie said.

Joe sighed, too, but smiled sympathetically. "If I could describe to you some of the things that Quinn has done for the sake of love and friendship without ruining her trust and dishonoring the confidentiality, I would. You might be amazed. A man like I've described Puck to be doesn't generally go for someone who isn't equally as great."

"Yeah – but wasn't he with someone greater at the time of that downgrade?" Stacie asked, frowning as she saw a photo of Mercy with Puck and Quinn, then one of Quinn, Puck and Joe.

"Everyone makes mistakes. I'm sure there are some on the pages of the diary of Stace-Face, as well – though they might not be as colorful or as grave… but it's possible that your background isn't as colorful or grave as other peoples, also. Try not to judge people for what you know about them, because there is just so much more that you don't know."

"I _don't_ know. And, I don't care," she said and pointed to a different photo. One of Puck with Lauren, hugged up. "Wait – he didn't date The Zizes, did he?" She asked.

"They went out a couple of times," Joe said with a shrug.

"I feel like I need a map legend to keep up with the hook ups in this clique! This is so weird for me, because I was always taught that you don't date people that your friend has liked or dated," Stacie admitted.

"Well… most of them are very private and not very social people. They have trust issues, it takes a while to get to know them. I've known them all for years and sometimes, I know that I'm being left out of loops. Also, people who are friends tend to sometimes like the same things, so..." He shrugged again and said, "And in my defense, the stuff with Puck and Quinn happened before I knew them well."

"When did you meet them?" She wondered.

"Hmm… I have been working at the center now for… six years… but I met Puck at my church, actually. He was drinking heavily and Mercedes guided him inside. She didn't even know what church she was at or anything. All that she knew was that he had a baby on the way (any day now, she said) and here he was, plastered. She was sad, but also angry and didn't want to deal with him. He had been house hopping for almost seven months, because he moved out of her place after the whole incident came to light, and he'd try to beg her to take him back that night, in hid drunkeness."

Stacie reminded him of one of the children, as he told his story, her blue eyes were wide with interest and shock. He could almost hear her asking 'What happens next?' He chuckled to himself and said, "I was headed home and I told her that he would be safe with us. I made sure that she got home safely and I took him home with me – which at the time was my parents' home, but they knew that I was doing some ministry work. When he got up the next day, my mom made breakfast and he sat at the table with us, in silence, except for repeatedly apologizing for the previous night and thanking all of us. He had me to bring him to the community center, where his friend Shane owned the place, but Shane told him that he couldn't have him there, like that – hungover and still reeking of alcohol, so he and I drove around and talked. I talked to him about God and Salvation. He talked to me about his dad and his drinking problems. I asked him about his baby on the way and he told me that he was drinking the night before because Quinn had told him that she was going to give up their baby to, believe it or not, the Schuesters."

Now, Stacie sucked in air at the same time as spoke and said, "NO!"

"At the time, they seemed like decent people and she thought it was best. He asked me to talk to her and said that he thought that God honestly sent me to him, because he had never talked to somebody so easily and that was the greatest compliment that I had ever had. He let me pray for him, with him and I promised to talk to Quinn, which I did. She was pretty stubborn at the time and felt attacked, but she decided to keep Beth and to allow Puck to be in her life, but only if he cleaned himself up, for sure. He made a vow and I didn't see either of them for the next year or so, but I would sporadically call to check on them and on their daughter. Eventually, Puck asked me if I wouldn't mind coming here to volunteer some time. He'd gotten cleaned up and was back at full speed with his work here and he needed good, honest people that he could trust to help out. I was elated to do so and ended up getting a staff position and he and I became very close friends…" Joe sighed and shut his eyes, "And I have to constantly remind myself not to be selfish about the fact that he's gone. This community and even the world lost a really great piece of it."

Stacie nodded and looked at more photos, feeling a little bit closer to Puck's humanity, but moreso, closer to Joe. He'd always been nice and they always joked around and had great rapport – but to see the love in his eyes when he talked about his friends and to hear the passion when he spoke of how good they were, as opposed to the casual nature in which he described his own powerful role in the lives of Noah Puckerman and Quinn and Beth Fabray. It was like he didn't even notice it, "You know – you're a great piece of this community and this world, as well," she told him.

"I do what I can," he said, casually, yet again.

"Joe… you took a drunk stranger into your home, fed him, ministered to him, promised to and followed through with talking to his pregnant ex or whatever she was, kept in touch with them to see how things were going with their general lives and happily accepted volunteer services when he but asked you. When _you _do what you can, its greater than the best that some of us can."

"I do what I do for God," he said, simply. "I can't help but to give my best at these things. It's how I show my love for Him."

"That's just it, though!" Stacie said. "I have been around Christian folks all my life, but I hadn't really seen Christianity until I met Mercy and saw the new Sammy, and when I look at _you, _Joe… I honestly can see Christ." They stared at each other for a moment, in silence. Joe was speechless at her words. He had heard people compliment how good of a Christian he was or suggest that he was so much better than the others that they knew, but the way that she had set up her compliment and the way in which she said it – so genuinely and obviously for no other reason but to honestly tell him her personal evaluation…

"Thank you, so much, Stacie. That is the most beautiful thing that anyone has ever said to me. That's my goal… to look like Christ." He finally was able to move and went in for a huge hug. Then jumped back and said, "I'm sorry! I'm all sweaty from sports time!" He shook his head and said, "It was good talking to you – we'll have to do it again, some time." He left to go shower in the locker room and she watched him go, her heart a maniac in her chest… what… what had just happened?


End file.
